REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – The No. 14 Stanford men’s rowing varsity eight earned its third straight win on Saturday, defeating No. 17 Oregon State.
“Oregon State’s interim head coach Gabe Winkler really has his guys rowing well,” said Stanford head coach Craig Amerkhanian. “He has brought a lot of enthusiasm to their program and we made each other better today by having a great race.”
Coming in to the race the two schools knew it was going to be a battle. Last weekend both teams competed in the Stanford Invitational at Redwood Shores, although not against each other, and put up near identical times.
“Last weekend all of our times were within a second of each other so we knew it was going to be a battle,” said senior Scott Roycroft.
Less than two seconds separated the top boats for the Cardinal and Beavers. Oregon State got off to a fast start off the line and had the early lead. Stanford recovered quickly after falling behind off the start and was able to come back to take the lead by the midway point at the bridge. The Cardinal finished with a time of 5:44.6, just ahead of Oregon State’s final time of 5:46.5.
“They know we like to go hard off the line and they went hard off the line too,” said Roycroft. “Even though we were down a seat, we maintained our rhythm, which is something we haven’t been able to do.”
Oregon State rebounded from the loss to start the day and topped the Cardinal in both the 2V8 and 3V8 races. The Beavers finished 4.4 seconds ahead of Stanford in the 2V8 and then won by 6.5 seconds in the 3V8.
Stanford also had a pair of exhibition races in the afternoon in order to match Wisconsin’s racing schedule and make Sunday’s dual fair.
The Cardinal will return to Redwood Shores on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. to dual with Wisconsin and close out the 2015 Pac-12 Challenge.
Pac-12 Challenge vs. Oregon State
Redwood Shores Lagoon
Redwood City, Calif.
April 18, 2015
Results
Varsity Eight
1. Stanford – 5:44.6
2. Oregon State – 5:46.5
Second Varsity Eight
1. Oregon State – 5:55.0
2. Stanford – 5:59.4
Third Varsity Eight
1. Oregon State – 6:01.9
2. Stanford – 6:08.4
Lineups
Varsity Eight
Coxswain – Nathalie Weiss
Stroke – Ryan Hails
7 – Allen Reitz
6 – Jovanni Stefani
5 – Kaess Smit
4 – Ryan O’Rourke
3 – Will Spencer
2 – Sean-Patrick Sullivan
Bow – Scott Roycroft
Second Varsity Eight
Coxswain – Ardsley Sanders
Stroke – Max Freundlich
7 – Misha Wilcockson
6 – Peter Wood
5 – Landon Alecxih
4 - Andrew Terajewicz
3 – Nico Cserepy
2 – Erik Holmvik
Bow – John Cirenza
Third Varsity Eight
Coxswain – Greg Wolk
Stroke – Kendall Fagan
7 – Wills McMahon
6 – Andrew Merrilees Paiva
5 – Max Skolds
4 – Brendan Larkin
3 – Jim Grace
2 – Matthew Park
Bow – Karl Wessendorf