May 18, 2003
The Stanford Women's Varsity Eight snapped Washington's 11-year hold on the PAC-10 title today. After racing a strong qualifying heat Stanford drew lane four in the final between #1 Washington and #8 USC with #3 Cal, #16 Oregon State and #13 Washington State rounding out the final. The Cardinal were a close second to the defending 2002 NCAA and Pac-10 Champion Washington as the boats came through the first 500 meter mark and then steadily pulled away from the group throughout the rest of the race. The Cardinal eight finished 4.4 seconds ahead of the Huskies en route to their historic first ever PAC-10 Championship.
The women's second varsity eight had a bronze medal performance after leading the field for the first 1000 meters of a very close race. The Cardinal had enough left to hold off the hard charging boat from WSU.
The varsity four got off the start in sixth place of the grand final and then clawed its way into fifth by passing USC picking up precious points toward the sought after NCAA team bid. This is the best performance the four has had this season.
The Stanford Women's Crew team had a season's best performance in all events at the 2003 PAC-10 Championship. The Cardinal team came into the event as the fourth place team in the west region, tallying just the NCAA events of V8, 2V8, and V4, and improved to second in the region giving them high hopes of a team bid to the NCAA Championships held May 30-June 1 in Indianapolis, IN. NCAA bids are announced Tuesday, May 20.
V8 1.Stanford 6.30.3 2.Washington 6.34.7 3.WSU 6.36.3 4.Cal 6.36.7 5.USC 6.38.4 6.OSU 6.44.2
2V8 1.Cal 6.42.5 2.Washington 6.43.1 3.Stanford 6.46.5 4.WSU 6.46.8 5.OSU 6.50.2 6.USC 6.52.3
V4 1.Cal 7.29.7 2.Washington 7.38.5 3.WSU 7.40.3 4.OSU 7.45.8 5.Stanford 7.52.2 6.USC 8.05.7