Duality of The Dual: Men’s crew devours, women’s crew gets devoured by Huskies
Women’s crew:
Not everything is always rainbows and butterflies for Cal. The No. 7 Bears faced defeat to No. 10 Washington in four out of five races over the weekend.
Starting The Dual off with the fourth varsity eights, the Bears completed the race with a time of 6:46.7— just 2.5 seconds behind the Huskies. Cal was unable to regain momentum during its second race against Washington’s 3V8+ boat, falling short by 16.9 seconds.
The Bears’ V4+ boat was able to briefly change the narrative of The Dual, out-racing the Huskies by 2.8 seconds in a neck-to-neck battle. Unfortunately for Cal, old habits die hard, as women’s crew fell back into a pattern of finishing just a hair behind Washington, in its second varsity eight race.
For their last, and arguably most important, race of the day, the Bears needed to put past their tough morning — The V8+ boat determined who would claim the Simpson Cup. Despite starting the first half of the race at a rather even pace, the Bears were unable to come to victory in the latter half, finishing a mere 3.3 seconds behind the Huskies.
Men’s crew:
Fortunately for the men’s team, it saw a different fate. The blue and gold won four of the five races, celebrating Cal Day in a slightly different manner than most students: taking home the Schoch Cup.
The Bears started their morning in Redwood Shores with a win against the Huskies’ varsity four boat. Setting the tone for the majority of The Dual, they finished a whopping 27.07 seconds ahead of Washington.
The freshman boat competed in the second race of the day, which resulted in Cal’s sole loss of The Dual. After a slower start, the Bears were unable to close the gap between their opponents — The race resulted in a 5:45.7 and 5:47.4 finish, with Washington taking the 1.7 second lead.
After the slight hiccup with the freshman eights, Cal was smooth sailing for the remainder of The Dual.
During the final race of the day, the Bears and Huskies sent out their V8+ boats to battle, with the Schoch Cup at stake. Maintaining an early lead, Cal came out victorious, 9.8 seconds ahead of Washington.
The Bears solidified their No. 2 position this weekend, one spot above their rival No. 3 Huskies. However, with the upcoming weekend against Stanford ahead, both the women’s and men’s team have some hurdles left to conquer.
Madison Lee covers men’s and women’s crew. Contact her at madisonlee@dailycal.org.