The Washington men's and women's crew teams performed admirably against some of the best rowers in the nation this weekend in the Windermere Real Estate Rowing Classic, the first big national event to showcase the skills of this year's Husky crews.

The women were victorious against three of their four opponents. They started off strong Saturday against Louisville, with wins by the varsity and junior varsity eights, as well as the varsity four. Their next opponents, from Virginia, proved to be too much in the second set of races Saturday, edging the Husky women in all three. The women's novice eight finished the day with a win over Sacramento State, posting a time of 7:19.40.

Sunday, the women came out on a clear, breezy day and edged out a challenging opponent by defeating Central Florida in all three categories: varsity eight, junior varsity eight and varsity coxed four.

The Husky men, who have the top crew teams in the country and were placed at No. 1 by the Collegiate Coaches' poll for the past two weeks, proved their worth this weekend with their dominating performances in all races. All but one of the men's boats went undefeated, with the junior varsity eight finishing six seconds behind Wisconsin Saturday with a time of 5:56.47. They then bounced back, however, to win their races against Trinity and Stanford.

The varsity eight swept all three of its events, including the match-up with Stanford that pitted the Huskies against the No. 2 team in the nation. In a true showing of dominance in the sport, the Husky men came out on top yet again, with a finish of 5:47.45 to the Cardinal's 5:53.55.

Husky men's coach Bob Ernst does not think that rankings are valid at this point in the season, however.

"Personally, I don't put much credence in the rankings," Ernst said. "The first weekend in June, we race to see who is the national champion, with thousands of people coming to watch every ranked team compete. That's when we'll really see who's the best in the nation."

Reach reporter Risa Pavia at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.