SPRING ‘26 COACHES REPORT — MEN
Stanford Men’s Rowing Spring ‘26 Coaches Report — Men's Rowing Staff
A SEAT AT THE TABLE
There are years when progress is measured by one boat, one result, or one emotional moment. This was not one of those years. The 2026 Stanford Men’s Rowing season was much more; it was a full-program step forward — the kind of year that showed up in the 1V8, the 2V8, the return of the 3V8, the Ten Eyck standings, and perhaps most importantly, in the way the team seemed to carry itself from March through IRAs.
From our perspective as alumni, parents, and supporters, this season felt like a turning point because it was not built on optimism or one result, but built race by race. The early signs were there at Redwood Shores, when Stanford opened the spring with an undefeated weekend and raced a third varsity eight for the first time since the 2019 IRA. While these were "expected wins" from a ranking standpoint, for anyone who has followed the program through the COVID years, the attempted discontinuation, and the long process of rebuilding, it felt like much more than that. Getting three eights on the water again meant bodies, belief, recruiting, retention, and internal competition. It meant the program was starting to look whole again. For some alums, during the era of freshmen/novice teams, having 5+ total boats on the water at practice used to be the norm, and in 2026 we took a step in that direction.
Then came Sarasota, where Stanford did not need to win the regatta to make a statement. Against Washington, Harvard, Brown, Northeastern, and Yale, the Cardinal showed it could bring three boats across the country and compete in one of the best early-season fields in collegiate rowing. The 1V8 finished fourth in the Saturday final and came home less than a second behind Brown. The 2V8 and 3V8 were also in the mix, and all three boats finished ahead of Yale. At that point, it was already clear that the season had a different feel. The team was young, but it was not waiting for some distant future to become competitive. It was gaining experience in real time.
The California Classic added another layer. Stanford swept Oregon State and Wisconsin across all six races, and the spread of speed across the boats again suggested that the program was growing in a healthier, deeper way. The Princeton Invitational then gave perhaps the first major proof point on the road. In choppy conditions on Lake Carnegie, Stanford swept Yale in the 1V8, 2V8, and 3V8, while also getting a useful benchmark against (eventual IRA 3rd place) Princeton, Penn, and Columbia. The 1V8 finished second behind Princeton and ahead of Penn and Columbia, and the team showed it could handle a difficult East Coast trip, unfamiliar water, unfavorable lanes, and a deep field without backing away.
Big Row showed the same story from a different angle. Stanford did not yet take back the Schwabacher Cup, but the top two boats were dramatically closer to Cal than they had been the year before. In 2025, those margins had both been more than nine seconds. This year, they were only 2.8 seconds in the 1V8 and 3.1 seconds in the 2V8. These margins matter because they are indicators as to whether the program is truly moving. And if there was a way to do margins with a weighted-average by age (Stanford continues to have a young 1V8), things would feel even closer, because we know that a rower's physical potential continues to grow with age (and actually peaks a bit after college).
At MPSFs, the results were honest. Washington and Cal were still ahead, and Stanford finished third in all three grand finals. But even there, the bigger story was not disappointment; it was trajectory. Stanford was racing three eights, staying close to the front, and competing while managing injuries and lineup adjustments — continuing to hold a national profile that suggested an IRA Grand Final was not a fantasy.
Then Lake Natoma gave the season its answer.
The 2026 IRA Championship was the weekend Stanford Men’s Rowing had been building toward. Stanford finished fifth in the Ten Eyck standings with 209 points, tying the program’s best team finish from 2009. The Cardinal won the Clayton Chapman Trophy as the most improved men’s team after increasing its point total by 61 points from the previous year. The 1V8 reached the Grand Final and finished sixth. The 2V8 won the Petite Final to take seventh overall, from a very unlikely lane. The 3V8 finished 11th and contributed meaningful points in its first IRA appearance in years.
The 1V8 breakthrough was the headline for obvious reasons. Reaching the varsity-eight Grand Final at a full-field IRA for the first time since 2009 was a landmark achievement. That race put Stanford back in a place that has historically been guarded by the sport’s deepest and most established programs, including Brown who had beaten them just a couple months earlier. It is hard to overstate what that means. A seat in the IRA Grand Final is not given by reputation, hope, or tradition. It has to be earned over 2,000 meters, against crews that have spent the whole year chasing the same thing. The Stanford Men earned it.
But the 2V8 may have provided the emotional center of the weekend. After a chaotic semi final sequence that included a rare 800m geese-instigated stoppage and a quick re-row, Stanford came back in the Petite Final and rowed its best race of the season when it mattered most. From a not-so-advantaged lane 4, the Cardinal beat Northeastern by less than two tenths of a second and locked down seventh in the country. That kind of race says a great deal about a crew. It says they could absorb frustration, reset quickly, and still deliver under pressure.
The 3V8 also deserves special recognition. It did not get the same headline as the 1V8 or the same dramatic finish as the 2V8, but its presence mattered enormously. Getting that boat to IRAs again was itself a sign of restored depth. The 3V8 bore the brunt of lineup movement and injuries across the fleet, yet still reached the Petite Final, finished 11th, and added points that helped turn Stanford’s team result from a good weekend into a breakthrough one. That is how real programs are built — not only through one fast top boat, but through depth that keeps pushing the standard upward. Their presence contributed to 42 points in the Ten Eyck standings — nearly 70% percent of the incremental team points for 2026 over 2025 — a big reason for winning the Chapman trophy.
The comparison to last year shows just how much has changed. In 2025, Stanford finished ninth in the 1V8, eighth in the 2V8, and 12th in the Ten Eyck standings with 148 points. This year, those numbers became sixth, seventh, 11th in the 3V8, and fifth as a team with 209 points. That is not incremental progress. That is a program taking a step.
It also came from a team that was still young and still working through the aftereffects of disrupted recruiting classes. The seniors — Caspar Griffin, James Pullinger, and Jacob Rivera — deserve special gratitude for carrying the program through leaner years and helping bring it to this moment. They leave behind more than results. They leave behind evidence that the rebuilding work was real, that the culture had roots, and that the next group now knows what it feels like to perform on the biggest stage.
That may be the most important legacy of 2026. The underclassmen do not have to imagine what an IRA Grand Final feels like. They have lived it. They do not have to wonder whether Stanford can finish fifth in the Ten Eyck. They have done it. They do not have to talk abstractly about depth; they have raced as a three-eight team and seen how every boat contributes to the whole.
From the outside, this season looked like a team learning to race with freedom and conviction. There was no sense of Stanford asking for anyone’s permission to belong. By the end, the Cardinal looked like a program willing to line up, take its lane, and make the field deal with them.
That is why 2026 feels different; it was not the final destination, and no one around Stanford Rowing should want it to be. The gap to the very top remains difficult. Washington, Cal, Princeton, Harvard, Dartmouth, and the rest of the IRA field are not going anywhere. But Stanford is no longer simply talking about returning to that conversation. The team put points on the board, boats in the finals, and pressure on the field.
For years, supporters of Stanford Men’s Rowing have believed that this program could come back stronger, deeper, and more complete. This season gave us something better than belief — it gave us proof.
Thank you to the athletes, coaches, staff, families, alumni, and supporters who helped make this season possible. And thank you especially to the seniors who stayed with the work long enough to see this moment arrive.
The 2026 team did not just have a good IRA — we feel it changed the terms of the conversation for years to come.
GO STANFORD ROWING!
