Courtesy: Stanford Athletics

04/15/2016

STANFORD, Calif. – No. 7 Stanford women's rowing will be joined by some of the other top crews in the nation this weekend in Gold River, Calif. as the Cardinal is part of the nine-team Lake Natoma Invitational.

Stanford is one of seven top-20 teams in this year's field that also includes No. 1 Brown, No. 2 California, No. 12 Wisconsin, No. 15 Gonzaga, No. 16 Iowa and No. 18 Notre Dame. Sacramento State and Loyola Marymount round out the strong field.

Each team was placed in a different group and will compete against different teams throughout the three sessions of the two-day event. Teams will accumulate points based on their performances throughout the weekend and a team champion will be crowned on Sunday.

Stanford won the Lake Natoma Invitational in 2011, while California (five times), and USC (2013) are the only other schools to take home the team crown in the prestigious regatta.  

The Cardinal will go head-to-head with the nation's top two teams on Sunday, facing Brown and California in the varsity eight, second varsity eight and varsity four. Sunday's action begins at 8:20 a.m. PT with the varsity four race between Stanford, Cal and Brown, followed by the second varsity eight race at 8:50 a.m. PT and the varsity eight race at 9:20 a.m. PT.

The Lake Natoma Invitational begins on Saturday morning, as each one of Stanford's boats will race twice. The Cardinal will face Gonzaga and host Sacramento State in the morning (V4 – 9:10 a.m., 2V8 – 9:40 a.m., V8 – 10:10 a.m.), before a matchup with Wisconsin and Notre Dame in the afternoon (V4 – 4:00 p.m., 2V8 – 4:30 p.m., V8 – 5:00 p.m.).

Stanford will also field a third varsity eight that will compete against Wisconsin and Sacramento State in heat racing at 3:40 p.m. PT on Saturday. The top finishers and next fastest times during Saturday's heat racing will advance to Sunday's Grand Final in the third varsity eight at 8:10 a.m. PT.      

The course at the Lake Natoma Invitational will serve as the site of the Pac-12 Championships and NCAA Championships once again this season. In its most recent competition on the course in Gold River, California, Stanford placed sixth in the NCAA Championships last May.

Two weeks ago, Stanford's varsity eight defeated Washington in a head-to-head race and captured the crown against Washington, Oregon State, Oklahoma and UCF in the Oregon State Classic on Dexter Lake in Oregon.

Coverage of the team at the Lake Natoma Invitational will be available on the team's twitter account @stanfordrowing and on www.gostanford.com following the conclusion of each day's racing. LIVE results will be available on Twitter by following @NatomaInvite.