THE STANFORD MEN'S ROWING team provided a foundation for the future during the 2024 season.
Of the 23 individuals in three Stanford boats at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships, 12 were freshmen. In fact, on the two Varsity Eight boats alone, Stanford fielded 11 freshmen and 13 underclassmen, including coxswains.
Stanford placed 14th overall at the IRA Championships on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, New Jersey, scoring 113 points. Stanford advanced to the B final in the First Varsity Eight, placing 12th overall. The Second Varsity Eight won the C final and placed 13th overall. And the Cardinal Fours won the D final and placed 19th overall, their highest finish since 2021.
The roster size was small, with 27 altogether, which prevented the Cardinal from filling a Third Varsity Eight and being represented by a full squad. However, a strong incoming freshmen class, plus a strong group of underclassmen, will grow the program further in 2025.
Stanford was led by its two All-Pac-12 Conference selections on the 1V8 boat – seniors Jacopo Mascitelli and Travis Senf. Mascitelli began the year in the No. 3 seat before moving into the stroke seat for the IRA Championships.
Senf, a two-time all-conference selection, began the season in the No. 6 seat but found a home in the No. 3 seat at the end of the year.
Mascitelli and Senf joined Tom Corbett, Caspar Griffin, and Hylton Harvey as the only rowers to have a seat on the 1V8 in all 11 races this season. Corbett, Griffin, and Harvey are from the British Isles. Corbett and Harvey are freshmen and Corbett is a sophomore.
There were eight Brits on the full squad, with all of them rowing or coxing on the 1V8 or 2V8. Of those, six were freshmen, including 1V8 coxswain Fleur Blasé.
Stanford opened the season in glassy waters of Nathan Benderson Park at the IRA Sarasota Invitational. On the second day of the competition, both Stanford boats rowed their fastest times of the year. The 1V8 clocked 5:38.79 over 2,000 meters and the 2V8 finished in 5:46.83.
Conditions weren't so kind in the Big Row dual against Cal, when a heavy rainstorm hardly let up on Stanford's home course (and Cal's) of Belmont Channel/Redwood Shores Lagoon. Cal took the honors in a rivalry that began in 1915, but the Cardinal 2V8 showed substantial improvement from 2023 and that was part of the story of the season – parity.
The average gap between the Cardinal 1V8 and 2V8 boats was 7.7 seconds. Last year, there was an almost 20-second gap in the IRA finals between the two boats. This year, the gap was fewer than five seconds. While the Cardinal 1V8 wasn't quite as swift as the 2023 boat that included 2024 U.S. Olympian Peter Chatain, it still reached the AB semifinals at the IRA Championships. The season's narrative was largely about the improvement of the 2V8.
The 2V8 finished in the same position as it did it 2023, but was markedly better, with a seven-second improvement in the same race.
With the breakup of the Pac-12, Stanford will be seeking a new rowing conference for 2025, but in whatever form a new conference takes, the talented young Cardinal squad already has provided plenty of optimism for the years to come.