Home | Schedule/Results | Rosters | Coaches | News Releases | History | Camps

May 27, 1997

Cal Men's Crew Travels to the IRA National Championships

SCHEDULE    
    Thurs.  May 29  Heats       A.M.
    Thurs.  May 29  Repechage   P.M.
    Fri.    May 30  Semifinals  All Day
    Sat.    May 31  Finals      All Day

RACING: A full compliment of Cal men's crews travels to Camden, New Jersey for the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships to be contested on the Cooper River, May 29-31. The Bears will enter crews in the varsity, JV and freshman eights competition in addition to an entry in the varsity four event.

ABOUT THE BEARS: Cal is coming off a strong showing at the Pac-10 Rowing Championships, May 18, at Lake Natoma in Sacramento. The Bears finished second to Washington in all men's events. The varsity event at Pac-10s proved to be the closest race of the day as the Washington Huskies crossed the line just 1.1 seconds ahead of Cal taking top honors in a strong field. The JV trailed the Huskies by 3.5 seconds while the freshman eight finished 10 seconds back. The varsity four, which defeated the Huskies in Seattle earlier in the season, fell behind in the early going and crossed the line six seconds behind.

COMPETITION: The Bears will square off against the fastest crews in the country this weekend at the IRA. Early favorites include both the Pac-10 champion Washington and the Eastern Sprints and defending IRA champion Princeton Tigers. Both crews are undefeated on the year. Other crews expected to make a strong showing in the varsity event include, Brown, Wisconsin, Northeastern and Penn.

IRA HISTORY: The Bears have a strong history of racing at the IRA. Over the years, Cal's varsity has accumulated 10 golds, 6 silver, and four bronze medals. Cal's last win came in 1976 when coach Steve Gladstone, in his first coaching stint with the Bears, directed his crew to a national championship. Bear JV crews have earned 4 golds, 11 silvers, and nine bronze medals, while Cal frosh have 2 gold, 7 silver, including its second place finish in 1996, and a bronze.

CLOSING THE GAP: The Cal varsity eight has been fighting all season to close the margin with Washington. In the first regatta of the season at the San Diego Crew Classic, the Bears finished second to the Huskies by a margin of nearly 7 seconds. When the crews met in Seattle at the Washington Dual, April 26, Cal shaved 5 seconds off of that margin, crossing the line just 2 seconds back of the Huskies. On May 18 at Pac-10s, Cal cut the gap in half as it trailed by only 1.1 seconds when the race ended. Racing at the IRA should provide Cal with at least one more opportunity to erase the deficit between it and rival Washington.

LINEUPS: 
Below are the racing lineups for Cal at the IRA.
        Varsity             JV              Frosh            Varsity 4+
cox     Seb Johnck          Shourya Basu    Michael Lennig   Luis Pinto
stroke  Danko Djunic        Bobby Corridan  Edward Hamilton  Scott Kaslusky
7       Lars Erdmann        Jon McLoughlin  Graham Taylor    Grant Davis
6       Djordje Visacki     Mike Wood       Kevin White Tim  Moore
5       Andeja Stevanovic   Steve Rohr      Gunter Mihaescu  Mike Klyszeiko
4       Sebastian Bea       Jon Allbin      Terry Dunnigan  
3       Mark Roslon         Tadas Petrys    Jeremiah Dees   
2       Jason Boyle         Malcolm Post    Trevor Walker   
bow     Wolf Thiele         Matt Barnes     Stephen Rose    
 

COACH STEVE GLADSTONE: Regarded as one of the nation's premier coaches, Steve Gladstone returns to Cal this season for his second stint as men's head coach while serving as the Director of Cal Crew. During his previous tenure from 1972-80, Gladstone guided the Bears to three undefeated dual race seasons, a Pac-10 championship and an Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) championship. Between 1981-94, Gladstone served as the Director of Rowing Operations at Brown where his crews amassed four Eastern Sprints Championships, five IRA championships, and two National Collegiate Rowing Championship titles.