Last weekend, the Collegiate Rowing season set off with a bang with exciting racing across the country, and this weekend will be a continuation of that as the state of California will be the centre of attention with three major hubs of top-level racing.
Coaches Poll
For a second consecutive week, there is no new poll from the IRA coach association, but the CRCA have published their newest poll for the women’s teams, following this weekend’s racing.
The most interesting move in this week’s poll came from Princeton as they rose from third to second following the level of comfort in their win over #6 Brown. Further down, Duke are the beneficiaries of their squad depth, rising two places despite tough losses in their first Varsity Eight.
Week Three Preview
On the men’s side it is a weekend full of dual racing as no crew in the pre-season top twenty is expected to race more than two boats wide. Some notable matchups include the Arlett Cup in Boston as local rivals #13 Boston University and #6 Northeastern face off on the Charles, which will be immediately followed by #5 Harvard hosting #13 Cornell as the Crimson look to back up their shock victory in Sarasota.
Out west, three of the four schools in the Pac-12 will host the Pac-12 Invitational in Redwood City. #1 California, #8 Stanford and #20 Oregon State will, in turn, each race #9 Syracuse, #15 Wisconsin and #16 La Salle. This will allow for some comparisons between the levels of competition in the east and west of the country as well as providing indirect measurements of how the crews from their respective coasts would fare against each other. With three sets of shirts on the lie for each school, there will be a great desire to perform up to this test.
On the women’s side, the spotlight will shine bright on the San Diego Crew Classic as Mission Bay hosts a meeting of giants as #3 Washington, #4 Texas and #7 California highlight a stacked field in Southern California. This will also be the first public race for the SMU Mustangs under new Head Coach Chase Graham, their stock has shrunk since Kim Cupini left for #15 Tennessee but this will provide the girls from Dallas an opportunity to prove the haters wrong with a strong performance here.
Elsewhere in the Golden State, the Lake Natoma Invitational will be key in #20 UCLA’s quest for an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships as they take on Miami and Gonzaga, among others.
Heading east, there is a number of key dual races, most pressingly in Saratoga, New York where #5 Yale and #8 Syracuse will be hosted by Cornell. Three hours east on the River Charles, the Beanpot will be competed for between local rivals #19 Harvard-Radcliffe, Boston University and Northeastern, while Dartmouth will also join for the event. The other two programmes on the stretch, MIT and Boston College, will also meet on Saturday.
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