Ollie Maclean took home the Pac-12 Athlete of the Year award, the conference bureau announced Friday afternoon.
Four bears are awarded at all conferences
SAN FRANCISCO – The Cal men’s rowing team won the postseason honors, as announced by the conference bureau Friday afternoon. Senior Ollie Maclean was named Male Athlete of the Year, Freshman Gennaro di Mauro was named Newcomer of the Year and Head Coach Scott Fransen took home the award for Coach of the Year.
Maclean was accompanied by Senior Eliot Kempand juniors Angus Dawson and Campbell Crouch on the All Pac 12 team.
Maclean’s return to action was instrumental in Cal’s success that year. He sat in fifth seat in the varsity 8+ in every race and was instrumental in helping the Bears retake the Schoch Cup and win the program’s 16th Pac-12 Championship. He is the seventh member of the Cal rowing program to win Athlete of the Year and the first since Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk won it for the third straight year in 2018.
Di Mauro had an immediate impact on the Bears’ V8+ lineup. The 6-foot-10 native of Sant’Anastasia, Italy, has rowed the four-seater in every race for the Bears this year, including the open-water win over No. 3 Washington at the UW Dual and Pac-12 championships . He becomes the ninth Cal rower to receive this award.
Kemp, Campbell and Dawson have all earned all conference recognition for their influence on the Bear’s top-ranked V8+. Kemp, a four-time letter winner for the Bears, earns his first all-conference honor after sitting on the seven-seater. Juniors Dawson and Campbell also take home their first All-Conference honors. Dawson rowed the three-seater for the Bears while Campbell sat in the bow seat.
For head coaches Scott Fransen, this is his first Coach of the Year award. He is the third coach in the program’s history to receive this award. Steve Gladstone won it four times and Mike Tetti once won.
Cal has swept the Pac-12 honors only once before in program history. That was in 2016, when Wegrzycki-Szymczyk was named Sportswoman of the Year, Joachim Sutton was named Newcomer of the Year and Teti was named Coach of the Year.
The Bears will be back in action on Friday, June 3 for the opening day of the IRA National Championships at Mercer Lake in West Windsor Township, NJ
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