Huskies Pull Away in End, Out-Row Bears

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.-"Cal-Washington is one of the best rivalries in all of college sports, right up there with Michigan-Ohio State football or UNC-Duke basketball," Washington men's crew coach Michael Callahan said.

On Saturday morning, the No. 6 Cal men's crew team faced off against the 2007 national champion-and this year's top-ranked-Huskies. These two crews are the reason that the power of collegiate rowing is now firmly planted on the West Coast.

The undefeated Washington varsity eight proved to be too fast for Cal, winning by a margin of over six seconds, 5.42.11-5.48.71. The Bears were able to keep up with the Huskies for more than half the race, but the Huskies cleared some distance with about 750 meters to go.

"It does suck to lose, but it's important to learn from the reasons why we lost. There is still some speed to be found in this race," senior Gordon Getsinger said. "We lost to Washington by about four seconds in San Diego and a little more than that today. We need to find those seconds somewhere before the national championship."

Cal's second varsity eight nearly managed to establish an open water lead just before the 1,500 meter mark. At that point, the Huskies were able to rapidly close on the Bears' lead, but in the end Cal was able to pull out a narrow victory by a time of 5.52.53-5.49.31.

"Sometimes race day jitters from being next to such a powerful crew can phase you out. This was nothing extraordinary, we just went out and did what we do everyday in practice," Bears 2V stroke Sean Engel said. "It's Washington, it's important, this is who we want to beat every year."

As the season progresses and the faces on the varsity boat come and go, coach Steve Gladstone continues to search for the combination that will eventually run at the IRAs in June. The two Cal shells put together times, one winning and one losing, which were less than a second apart. This means there are changes to be made before next weekend's race against Stanford.

"We are on the right track. But if we have two boats running the same speed then it's probably not a good idea to leave them that way," Gladstone said. "And I don't want to sound like I don't care because losing is not anyone's objective. After the suffering, you have to bring intelligence to the loss. We have to find out what went wrong."

If anyone can find the antidote to end the Bears' losing streak, it's Gladstone. The coach had seven different cameras strategically placed throughout the 2,000m course to capture the races.

And the Cal oarsmen are sick of losing. They are tired of losing the shirts off their backs in confirmation of their defeat.

"It stings to give your shirt away, yet it fuels the fire. I haven't lost this much (in a row) in all of my four years," Getsinger said. "It's basically going to come down to us, if we can man up and come together as a boat. And hopefully in the end we will be able to have the last laugh at the national championship."

Tags: SCHOCH CUP