San Diego Crew Classic 2025 – Men’s Open Eights Preview

The traditional curtain-raiser on the US spring season, the San Diego Crew Classic takes to Mission Bay with one of the largest events of the season. With events for juniors, masters and collegiate crews, this event is open to all as we will see some fast racing from crews across the spectrum

University of California – Berkeley

One of the most revered programmes in the sport, the University of California has a restricted delegation in San Diego from their men’s programme this weekend, as Scott Frandsen has opted to enter just two categories with an eight in each of the collegiate and open events. We would expect this crew to be either a fourth eight or a freshman crew based on previous years. If it is the latter, the Golden Bears have some of the highest quality recruiting in the sport, with the current Freshman crew boasting multiple world championship medal winners at the junior level, including Alec Wild and Nat Gauden, two names that will be familiar to a British audience from their exploits at St Paul’s School and Leander respectively. At the start of the month, the Freshman crew travelled to the Newport Regatta for a series of duals over a 1,400-metre course and left undefeated with their closest race being against the fourth varsity eight. Whichever crew it is, they will expect to return to Berkeley with their undefeated record intact. 

Club Náutico de San Juan

While bearing the name of Puerto Rico’s finest oarsmen, this crew is a group of alumni from Brown University who return each year to Mission Bay to put up a performance against some current athletes. Last year, they raced in a head-to-head dual, beating a UK Armed Forces crew by 11 seconds, but they will face a stiff challenge from the other programmes that haveentered this weekend. As is often the case with alumni crews, their quality can range widely from event to event, but they will need to be a lot quicker than twelve months ago if they want to lift the Anderson Borthwick Memorial Trophy on Saturday night.

Community Rowing, Inc.

Based out of Boston, Massachusetts, Community Rowing Inc. hosts strong junior and masters rowing programmes out of its boathouse on the Charles River. This crew draws decisively from the latter group. With a range of ages in the provisional lineup – including a seventy-seven-year-old – this crew has a definite experience advantage over some collegiate rivals. With high-calibre masters rowers in the crew, they may be able to punch above their age class, but the gap will be way too much to mix in with the Golden Bears for the win.

Potomac Boat Club

Making the cross-country trip from Washington, DC, the Potomac Boat Club runs a strong programme within their men’s sweep group, aiming for a UK-club-style environment. At the Head of the Charles, they finished eighth in the club eights and were the second ‘true’ club entry. They look to return a similar squad this weekend as they will likely line up in this event and the premier Copley Invitational on Sunday. Primarily made of former collegiate athletes, they will see the battle for second place on Saturday or may even back themselves to challenge the Californian crew.

Prediction

With collegiate men’s programmes turning away from the crew classic, these events have been unfortunately under-entered. As such, it has left a very clear path for the University of California, Berkeley crew to claim this title for the third year in a row.

About The Author

Fraser Innes

Fraser joined the JRN team in September 2022 and regularly writes about domestic and international rowing with particular specialisation on US Collegiate Rowing having launched JRN’s coverage and being a staple on the End of the Island’s series on the topic. He has been involved with the sport since 2016 at George Heriot’s School and the Universities of Glasgow and Wisconsin.

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