Bears Drop Dual Race To Washington

SEATTLE – The Cal women's rowing team held its annual dual with Washington on Saturday, with the Huskies sweeping all four races on the Montlake Cut.

The Bears' third varsity eight had the best performance of the morning for Cal. It held a slim lead over Washington after the first 500 meters and was within two seconds at the halfway point before the Husky boat pulled away over the final 1,000 meters to win by a little over eight seconds.

Washington beat Cal by 11 seconds in the varsity eight and over 12 seconds in the second varsity eight. The Bears' varsity four fell by over 22 seconds.

"I don't think we had our best race," Cal head coach Al Acosta said. "The third varsity was really good and really hung in there for a little while. The varsity and second varsity got into a hole early on and weren't able to collect themselves. Hopefully, we can get that straightened out."

With the Bears' top boats competing in Seattle, Cal also sent a crew to the Sac State Invitational on Lake Natoma on Saturday. The Bears won the second varsity four race by almost 13 seconds over host Sac State while their fourth varsity eight, competing against other schools' top crews, placed second to the Hornets by four seconds. Cal's fifth varsity also came in second behind the Hornets.

Saturday wrapped up what turned out to be a short spring regular season because of COVID-19. Cal finished with tough races over top crews and rivals Stanford and Washington, and now has two weeks to prepare for the Pac-12 Championships on May 16.

"I definitely feel like we are making progress from week to week. It's just unfortunate we weren't able to execute it on raceday today," Acosta said. "Everyone is still positive about our ability to continue that progress for Pac-12s. It was definitely tough to race those schools back to back, but it was also a valuable experience to feel that pressure."