“I got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight…”
Even 21 Savage’s hit track “Bank Account” doesn’t do justice to Cal’s dominating performance at the San Diego Crew Classic as the men and women raced their way to nine combined first-place finishes in, well, nine races.
The Bears pulled off a top-to-bottom clean sweep at the most renowned regatta of the spring season, an occurrence that is almost unheard of in the rowing world.
The Cal crew teams won both featured races, the men’s and women’s varsity eights, with time to spare, marking this spring as the first time since 2005 that the Bears won both races at the Crew Classic.
The men beat then-No. 1 Yale, the defending national champion, in their varsity eights race by more than two seconds as they defended their elite rowing reputation among the world’s best. Mike Teti’s team also took first in its four other events.
The women’s varsity eight secured the win in the Jessop-Whittier Cup, finishing ahead of defending champion Texas by more than four seconds.
Cal’s women also topped rival Stanford in the Carley Copley Cup, finishing a comfortable 14 seconds ahead of the Cardinal.
Though the Bears’ masterful performance undoubtedly deserves to be celebrated, there won’t be too much time to dwell on it, as the women face some familiar foes in just a few days at the Pac-12 Invitational, which begins March 31. The men have more of a rest and will compete at the Stanford Invitational on April 14 and 15.
As most students will be relaxing from the rigor of Berkeley’s academics during spring break, the Bear’s rowing teams will continue training with the goal of continuing what they began this past weekend at the San Diego Crew Classic.