One boat can make or break the results for another at the Head of the Charles Regatta, and no one knows this better than the varsity eight of Cal men's crew.

In the Championship Eight event on Sunday afternoon, the Bears placed third behind the University of Washington and Pole France Aviron Nancy-the French national team-after clashing oars with a Princeton crew coming around a bend of the river. Cal finished in a time of 14:33, just five seconds behind the Huskies and three behind the French.

"We clashed blades trying to pass them and had to come to a complete stop," senior Will Dean said. "They got a penalty, but we still lost a few seconds."

The Bears were holding their own through the first bridge, just under one second behind Washington and two behind France. However, they fell to 10 seconds behind the two leading crews after the clash.

"There's always going to be that 'X' factor at the Charles, that's just the nature of it," Dean said. "We did a good job recovering from the crash, so we're happy with our performance."

Cal's second varsity eight took 17th in a time of 15:16.

"It was a good race, we'll just try and improve next week for the Head of the American," coxswain Zach Vlahos said.

The Bears will race the Head of the American Regatta next Saturday at Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif.