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Results
Lineups
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GOLD RIVER, Calif. – The No. 6 Stanford women’s rowing team took away much more from the Pac-12 Championships than a silver medal in the varsity eight and fourth place finish as a team.
The Cardinal had a chance to race six of the top 20 teams in the nation and three of the top 10 on the same course as the NCAA Championships, giving them an excellent test run for the final regatta of the year in two weeks.
“We knew we'd have to fight for every seat in every event,” said head coach Yasmin Farooq. “You could say it's the blessing and the curse of being a D1 team in the Pac-12. There are no easy wins at the conference championship and every year you know that your team will be tested. But the battle toughening that comes along with it is worth it, and for that we are always grateful. We'll hope to take the lessons learned here to the NCAA's in two weeks.”
In recent years, Stanford’s scheduling throughout the season has been grueling but great preparation for the final regatta of the season. This year was no different and tacking on a championship event for one of the toughest conferences in the nation only helped the experience of a young Cardinal team.
The varsity eight had a terrific race with No. 4 Cal for the second time in three weeks. Stanford was ready to go from the beginning and got off to an aggressive start to take the lead. The Cardinal held the lead for a good portion of the race, but the Golden Bears showed their strength and came out with the win in the end.
Stanford clocked a 6:36.7 to finish six seconds back of Cal and 2.5 seconds ahead of Washington. The Cardinal has now finished first or second in the varsity eight in seven of the last nine years.
In the team standings, Stanford finished just one point shy of Washington State for third place. Cal took home the team championship over Washington by 1.5 points.
The second varsity eight finished fourth in its race, just over three seconds off a spot on the podium. Stanford recorded a time of 6:49.5 with Washington State posting a 6:46.4.
Junior coxswain Liza Gurtin made her 2015 debut with the varsity four, coming back from a surgery that has kept her out most of the year. She guided the boat to fifth place with a time of 7:41.7. It was an extremely tight race coming down to the wire with USC, but the Trojans finished ahead by a few feet and 0.6 seconds.
The third varsity eight started off the day with a seventh place finish, less than one second off of fifth place. The boat consisted of three freshmen and four individuals overall racing for the first time in 2015. Making their racing season debuts were Anne Bertram, Jenn Belz and walk-on Cori Brendel. Kate Kidd, a senior who last year competed with the lightweight team at Stanford, also competed for the first time this season.
Starting off the awards ceremony, the Pac-12 surprised senior coxswain Naomi Cornman with the Scholar-Athlete of the Year award. She is the fourth Cardinal women’s rower to earn the honor.
Stanford will now wait for the NCAA announcement to see if they received an at-large selection to the NCAA Championships May 29-31 back at Lake Natoma.