It all came down to the varsity eight race.

Cal held just a three-point lead over the reigning champion Huskies--a Washington win would have handed them the one-point win and seventh consecutive Pac-12 Championship.

The Bears had other plans. Cal held a tight lead throughout the race and pulled out a time of 5:39.8, 2.1 seconds in front of the Huskies (5:41.9) to seal their first Pac-12 title since 2009.

And @CaliforniaCrew's done it! The Bears V8 beats @UW_Rowing to snap the Dawgs 6 yr #Pac12Row Championship streak! pic.twitter.com/0d0YHNZIbz

— Kate Scott (@katetscott) May 15, 2016

"You're never confident going up against them," said Cal head coach Mike Teti. "You know that when we race them, it's always going to be close. They're a really strong program and we don't really talk about being confident, it's just like, look, it's x's and o's."

Cal's other wins at Sunday's event included a photo-finish win over the Huskies; Cal's second varsity eight won by just .07 seconds. 

We have a #Pac12Row photo finish at Lake Natoma!

Live results: https://t.co/QPO8huIzIC pic.twitter.com/b6wmkgWAO4

— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) May 15, 2016

The Huskies were good sports, though, making sure to come by Cal's celebration to congratulate the 2016 champs. 

But the season isn't over for the two teams. They'll face off at the IRA Championships from June 3-5 at Mercer Lake, N.J. 

"That's not so comforting," said Teti. "There's parity in our division, they're going to have to have three good races. You have to be on three times."