The California men’s rowing team won all three races against Stanford in the annual Big Row on May 2 at Redwood Shores, closing out its regular season. The Golden Bears’ first, second, and third varsity eights each secured victories over the Cardinal, marking the twelfth consecutive year that California has won this dual meet.
The event is a longstanding rivalry between the two schools and signals momentum for California as it heads into postseason competition. The results demonstrate both depth and adaptability within the squad as they prepare for upcoming championships.
California’s third varsity eight opened with a strong performance, finishing nearly fourteen seconds ahead of Stanford with a time of 5:58.1 to Stanford’s 6:12.5. In the second varsity eight race, California led early and maintained its advantage despite a challenge from Stanford in the third quarter; California finished in 5:55.7 while Stanford clocked in at 5:58.8. The top varsity eight continued this trend by leading from start to finish, winning with a time of 5:49.8 compared to Stanford’s 5:52.6.
“The goals of all of our regular-season races are to win and to learn from them – and I think we accomplished both of those goals today,” Cal head coach Scott Frandsen said. “We had to reshuffle some things and test out some new lineups today, and I think that went fairly well. It’s a good indication of the depth of our squad, when we can make last-minute adjustments and have it all click and come together in the race. There’s lots to learn from these races, and we now have some things we can figure out in the next two weeks leading up to the MPSF championships.”
With these results behind them, California will turn its attention toward defending its MPSF Championship title on May 16-17 at Lake Natoma in Sacramento before competing at the IRA Championships later that month.
