Cal Rowers Make Their Case That They're the Nation's Best Crew

Cal's No. 1-ranked varsity eight crew made a point on Sunday in Camden. New Jersey.

The Golden Bears did not win a national championship, as they were favored to do when the weekend started, but they did record the fastest time of the day on Sunday. However, they did it in the Final 2 or Petit Final, which featured the six crews that failed to qualify for the Grand Final in their Saturday semifinal heats.

Cal suffered an unlucky break in that semifinal race as a rare miscue in the final 250 meters cost the Bears an opportunity to compete in the Grand Final and chance to win Cal's third national championship in four years.

Instead it was No. 2-ranked Washington' that won the IRA national championship as its varsity eight won the Grand Final on Sunday, finishing nearly one second ahead of runnerup Harvard. But the Huskies time of 5:29,780 was nearly six seconds slower than Cal's winning time of 5:24.040 in the Petit Final, which took place a few minutes before the Grand Final.

(The winner of the varsity 8+ Grand Final is declared the IRA national champion, which is different from how the women's NCAA rowing national champion is determined.)

Cal's Sunday time would also have been the fastest time of the 12 boats that raced in the two semifinal heats on Saturday.

It suggests that Cal actually had the best varsity eight crew in the country, but a mishap in the Saturday semifinal ruined the Bears' bid.

In that Saturday race, Cal led at the halfway point and was within four-tenths of a second of first-place Harvard heading into the final 500 meters of the 2,000-meter race.

Finishing in the top three, which was needed to qualify for Sunday's Grand Final, seemed assured. But with 250 meters to go a rare mistake by a Cal rower -- apparently when a Bears rower "caught a crab" -- messed up everything for the Bears, costing Cal about 20 seconds of time. Cal finished last in its six-boat semifinal, preventing Cal from finishing in the top three to qualify for Sunday's Grand Final.

That rare miscue prevented Cal from a competing against Washington for a third time this spring. The Huskies' varsity eight had edged out Cal by half a second in Seattle on April 26, but the Bears defeated Washington by 1.24 seconds in the MPSF Championships two weeks ago.

Sunday's times suggest Cal is the uncrowned national champion.