BERKELEY - California Men's Rowing had another successful weekend of racing and swept the Stanford Invitational. Powerful performances were seen from all the crews who demonstrated excellent speed and composure across two days of racing.

Held annually at Redwood Shores in Redwood City and hosted by Stanford, the Stanford Invitational is an opportunity for Cal to race a selection of crews from across the country. This year, California raced Oregon, Wisconsin, UC Santa Barbara, Orange Coast College and UC Davis. In the countdown to the highly contested Cal-Washington duel this coming weekend, the Stanford Invitational was a great opportunity for the Bears to refine their lineups against a variety of crews.

Results were as follows:

Friday - Three Cal eights lined up against their respective crews from Oregon State beginning at 5:00PM.  A strong breeze provided headwind conditions in the first kilometer before turning into a crosswind in the final stretch.  All boats handled the conditions well and showed progress in length and rhythm from previous races at the San Diego Crew Classic. Powering away to solid victories, it was encouraging to see the progress that has been made in just two short weeks.

Saturday - Cal lined up against Wisconsin's varsity, junior varsity, and freshmen eights. Taking advantage of the calmer morning conditions, the California varsity eight saw off a strong challenge from a much improved Wisconsin varsity boat and set the fastest time of the event with a time of 5:37 into the light headwind. In the junior varsity event, California again emerged victorious, inching away from the Badgers to win by open water. Cal's freshmen continued to show their strength this season also beating Wisconsin by clear water. Finishing off the morning of racing, Cal crews had two hard-fought victories against UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara. After the lunch break, Cal was able to slowly move away from a strong Orange Coast College's varsity.

Sunday - Cal's third varsity and fourth varsity raced UC Santa Barbara, both recording wins. It was a great opportunity to switch the lineups around and try some new combinations.  All crews performed well and will continue to build on this momentum heading into our upcoming races.

In addition to the Stanford Invitational, Cal sophomore Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk had an impressive weekend of racing at Rowing World Cup I in Varese, Italy. The 21 year old competed for Poland in the men's single sculls coming fifth in a tightly contested final. This marks the sophomore's first international regatta of 2016 as he counts down to the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics this summer. Follow Natan at worldrowing.com.