Rowing beats Stanford ... AGAIN!

The rout is on.

In 17 years of rowing competition, the Hornets had never beaten the Stanford Cardinal.

Now it’s two weeks in a row.

The Hornet women’s rowing team defeated the Cardinal in the varsity eight and varsity four events Sunday.

“If there was any ‘Oh my god it’s Stanford!’ trembling-in-our-shoes feeling before, it’s gone,” head rowing coach Bill Zack said.

In the varsity eight, the Hornets rowed 2,000 meters in 7:11.4 to beat the Cardinal (7:17.9). The varsity four times were 8:24.1 for Sac State to 8:29.8 for the Stanford.

Also on Sunday, the Hornet rowers downed Kansas State. The Hornets rowed this varsity eight in 7:24.0 to barely overcome the 22nd-ranked team in the nation (7:25.8). The rankings are from the U.S. Rowing Coaches Poll.

“The Kansas race was our best,” Zack said. “They had easily beat UC Davis and Stanford recently.”

The Hornets were victorious over Stanford and UC Davis at last week’s California Collegiate Rowing Championships but had lost to both teams earlier in the year. This week’s crew was the same eight rowers as last week.

A near disaster hit in the race against Kansas after the Hornets were pulling away.

“We had a bobble and the boat veered at about 750 meters,” Zack said. “Kansas cut our lead down to about three seats.”

The women held on for the victory.

The weekend’s events were at Redwood Shores, Stanford’s home lake.

On Saturday, the Hornets (7:44.0) beat Santa Clara University (7:51.7).

“We could have beat them by 20 seconds,” Zack said. “We knew we had more races and we could have won by more.”

Originally, the Hornets were scheduled to meet Kansas at the CSUS Aquatic Center for the race on Friday. The Kansas team’s flights were delayed because of bad weather in the Midwest and they didn’t arrive until 4 p.m. on Friday. Races were originally scheduled for 5 p.m.

After the first two races, the Hornets had enough juice left for the win.

“They are a very good crew,” Zack said. “We are thrilled to beat them.”

The team is in the last half of its schedule and is looking forward to the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships on May 15-16 at the CSUS Aquatic Center.

Zack said the team is ready for the first heat in that race. He expects the University of Washington to be in lane one, San Diego State in lane two and the Hornets in lane three.

“Washington will win that race,” Zack said. “Whoever takes second will be in the finals race for the Championship.”

The season may be winding down but the Hornets are not.

“I’d like to think that we can still improve,” Zack said. “Hopefully with the workouts we’re doing this week, we can get a little faster.”

The Hornets must compete in two more events before the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships arrive. On Saturday, the UC Davis Aggies come to town.