The No. 6 Stanford men’s crew team fell into order behind No. 1 Washington and No. 3 California this past weekend at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships. After a disappointing finish, though, the Cardinal is looking to break that order in time for the IRA Regatta in June.

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Bernard Bluhm

Despite knocking off rival California one month ago to win the Copley Cup in the San Diego Crew Classic, the men’s varsity eight was unable to repeat the feat this past weekend at Pac-10s. The Cardinal struggled to find its rhythm and finished five seconds behind Cal.

Racing on Lake Natoma in Rancho Cordova, Calif., this past weekend, Stanford was looking to top the Bears yet again after beating its cross-bay rival at the San Diego Crew Classic a month ago. Also in the Cardinal’s sights were the undefeated Huskies.

In Sunday’s final, though, the Cardinal just couldn’t pull it off, taking bronze behind Washington and Cal (who finished first and second, respectively) in all three of its events: the varsity, second varsity and novice eights.

“We’re disappointed that we didn’t have more speed, that we didn’t demonstrate the speed we’re capable of in the final,” said senior Donny Simkin, a member of the varsity eight.

The varsity team — composed of Simkin, seniors Nate Rooks and Kevin Baum, sophomores Mark Murphy and Alex Osborne, juniors Silas Stafford, Dave Creighton and Ottavio Siani and sophomore coxswain Ariel Dixon — in particular was a disappointment for Stanford. The Cardinal, with a time of 5:53.0, finished 6.8 seconds behind leading Washington (5:46.2) and 5.2 seconds behind Cal (5:47.8).

For head coach Craig Amerkhanian, the problems were immediate.

“I was really disappointed with our varsity eight, especially when we gave up two seconds in the first 500 meters,” he said. “It’s a 2,000-meter race, so that’s a substantial deficit to make up against two top teams like Cal and Washington.”

Simkin also pointed out the team’s poor performance throughout the race. After weeks of preparation, Stanford just couldn’t realize its game plan, and it couldn’t realize its potential.

“We have the speed — we just didn’t demonstrate it at all this weekend,” he said. “We have the potential to race both of them, and we have the potential to beat both of them.”

As for why the Cardinal didn’t execute, Simkin was less certain.

“I don’t think anything in particular went wrong, we just couldn’t find our rhythm or what we like to call our free speed,” he said. “Some people got into bad habits from previous races, but there was nothing really tangible; no palpable mistake.”

In the coming weeks, Simkin said the team will have to switch things up, trying out new combinations of its current varsity-eight lineup, which has lasted since the team’s first races this season.

“When you have the same lineup for the entire season, there starts to be, not a complacency, but a staleness to what you do; people fall into old habits,” Simkin said. “Hopefully, by moving people into different positions and giving them a different role in the eight, we can realize that speed we have.”

The Cardinal will also consider new blades and a change of shell for its boat, but according to Simkin, “it’ll all be some window dressing-type things to build up our confidence.”

“At this point in the season there’s not a lot you can do to get faster,” he added. “There’s not much we can change, but hopefully the changes will make the things we do work on [in terms of speed] more immediate.”

And with the IRA Regatta — the national championship event — just over two and a half weeks away, Stanford will need to put its speed to the test and ensure that it comes through when it again faces Cal and Washington, as well as East Coast schools like No. 2 Harvard, No. 4 Yale and No. 5 Brown.

“We just rowed to the worst of our potential [this past weekend],” Simkin said. “We have the potential to race quickly, and we have the potential to race slowly. Right now, the discrepancy is just too wide.”