REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – No. 8 Stanford hosted the Pac-12 Invitational this weekend, welcoming No. 11 Boston University, No. 9 Northeastern, No. 15 Wisconsin, No. 7 Syracuse, No. 18 Oregon State, No. 3 California and No. 2 Washington to Redwood Shores.
The invitational gave Pac-12 conference members and other top national competitors opportunities to race against unfamiliar foes. The Cardinal took on No. 7 Syracuse, No. 9 Northeastern and No. 15 Wisconsin throughout the weekend, racing both its Varsity Eight and Second Varisty Eight boats. Stanford earned two victories throughout the six races, beating Northeastern's second varsity eight boat with a time of 5:55.73 and topping Wisconsin's varsity eight by just .34 seconds.
"Unfortunately, we didn't have the week of training, nor the weekend of racing, we intended to have," noted head coach Ted Sobolewski. "We had a few key athletes out with illness earlier this week and weren't able to build momentum through our training. With that said, I ultimately do not think our lack of preparation meaningfully changed the outcomes. Northeastern and Syracuse were the faster teams, and Wisconsin gave us one of the best races of the weekend."
Speaking further about the program's efforts throughout the weekend, Sobolewski noted that the Cardinal "were able to build a little momentum in each of the varsity eight races", recording slightly better races each time the varsity eight boats hit the water.
Sobolewski noted that the program's "second varsity eight (boat) had a great win to start off against Northeastern, but struggled a bit in the windier conditions on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning." Ultimately, the men's rowing coaches hope to "take away a ton of information from the weekend… to have a renewed understanding of the work (the program) need(s) to do in order to gain speed heading into the championship end of the season."
Stanford hits the road for its next taste of competition, meeting No. 18 Oregon State at Dexter Lake April 16.
BOATINGS
V8
Cox: Elysia Smyers
8: Flynn Traeger
7: Travis Senf
6: Peter Chatain
5: James Wright
4: Henry Stewart
3: Ben Felter
2: Jacopo Mascitelli
1: Nick Mayhew
2V8
Cox: Valeria Gonzalez
8: Scott Buzard
7: Tyler Baumann
6: Nick Woehrle
5: Alec Walter
4: Joey O'Brien
3: James Fetter
2: Tibor Thompson
1: Paul Gorka
RESULTS
2V8
Stanford: 5:55.73
Northeastern: 5:59.45
V8
Stanford: 5:49.22
Northeastern: 5:41.53
2V8 vs. Syracuse
Syracuse +15.0
V8 vs. Syracuse
Syracuse +8.2
*margins used due to discrepancies in officials' timing*
2V8 vs. Wisconsin
Stanford: 6:03.67
Wisconsin: 5:55.47
V8 vs. Wisconsin
Stanford: 5:41.61
Wisconsin: 5:41.95
