May 16, 2004
The Stanford Women's Crew team competed at the Pac-10 Championshipstoday in Rancho Cordova. The squad has seen season best performanceseach of the past four years at this event and this year was noexception.
The varsity four kicked off the finals by finishing 5th in the grandfinal besting the USC Trojans by just 0.2 seconds. Just three weeksprior the Cardinal four had lost to the Trojans by 9 seconds.
The second varsity raced in the second level final for places 7-11after not qualifying for the grand final in the morning heats. TheCardinal boat took an early lead on the field and finished 12 secondsahead of LMU.
The first varsity needed a strong finish in the grand final to keeptheir chances alive for an at-large bid to the NCAA's to be held atLake Natoma in two weeks. The Card got just that as they finishedahead of #12 ranked WSU and fourth place overall. California won theevent with Washington second, USC third and UCLA in sixth. NCAAteam and at-large bids will be announced Tuesday, May 18.