Varsity Eight Finishes in Fourth at San Diego Crew Classic

An undefeated Saturday turned into a morning of disappointment on Sunday for the Cal men's crew. The Bears could not come up with a win in any of their four grand finals.

Washington's first races of 2008 went just as well as their last of 2007. Last year's national champion won the varsity eight and the novice eight grand finals at this weekend's San Diego Crew Classic.

Still, the Huskies' win was not uncontested. The race was notably close with only a 4.48-second margin separating the winner from the sixth-place finisher.

Cal's varsity eight jostled between first and second for most of the race, but was unable to retain the pace during the sprint. The Bears fell to fourth, .03 seconds ahead of Northeastern and .23 seconds ahead of sixth-place Stanford.

The competition was anything but easy. Five of the seven crews that competed in Sunday's grand final also competed in last year's IRA grand final. Yet it was Cal's race to lose.

"We had a good 12- or 1,300 meters, but we were not able to sustain the pace that was set and had a very poor last 500 (meters) to the race," coach Steve Gladstone said. "It wasn't the case that they (Washington, Harvard and Princeton) had great sprints, it was more of a case of us running out of gas."

The nationally competitive field proved too much for Cal, which finished third in the second varsity, second in the novice eight and second and third in the open eight races.

"Even though we won comfortably (on Saturday), we knew we were going to have to step it up for the final," sophomore Benedict Tufnell said. "The bottom line was we weren't fast enough. We didn't make the necessary changes from the first round to the final."

The Bears may have set their expectations too high for this weekend, but they now have the advantage of having faced the best of the best in only their second weekend of the season. And Cal will surely remember what it will take to hang with that quality competition come June.

"I don't think that anyone from Cal on any boat thought that today was our fastest performance. We knew we could go faster," Tufnell said. "It is still a long way until the IRAs and the way we react to this (weekend) is what is really important."

Cal did not offer any excuses for its performance Sunday. It is something that the Bears will try and put behind them, but that will undoubtedly remain as an open sore throughout the season.

"Losing races is really painful. I hate it. I don't like it. There's nothing good about it," Gladstone said. "To see that fade in the last 600 meters, to see the field climb back into us. It's the shits. But do I think the season's over? No, it's a long way from it."

Tags: SAN DIEGO CREW CLASSIC