The University of Washington men's and women's crews gave the fans in the packed Montlake Cut something to cheer about as they raced to victory in the 21st annual Windermere Cup Saturday.

As the Husky band played and cries of "Go!" and "Huskies!" were traded back and forth across the cut, the men's and women's varsity eights defeated boats from Purdue and the University of Waikato, New Zealand, to claim the crystal trophy in the featured races of the day.

The Husky men also emerged victorious in the Erickson Memorial Cascade Cup, the freshman eight, the open eight and the varsity four races, while the women were held winless by Gonzaga in every other race they entered except the varsity four.

The Gonzaga women were extremely impressive in Saturday's event, winning the junior varsity, open eight and freshman eight races. The Erickson Memorial Cascade Cup race, in which Gonzaga's varsity boat raced against Western Washington and the UW junior varsity boat, was extremely close, with the Bulldogs edging out the Huskies by 1.09 seconds.

On the men's side, the Erickson Cascade Cup also featured an interesting result: The two Washington entries finished first and second, but the top freshman boat was the first-place finisher over the Husky JV crew. After defeat at the hands of the junior varsity rowers in the Class Day races and the Cal dual, the victory by the freshman boat is a good sign for its chances in the Pac-10 and NCAA championships, as well as promising for a strong team in years to come.

The most exciting races of the day were the varsity eight competitions. In the women's race, the Huskies fended off a late move by the New Zealand boat to post a winning time of 6:53.22 to Waikato's 6:56.27, while Purdue came in a distant third with a time of 7:09.58.

The Husky men's varsity eight came into the final race of the day hungry for victory. Not only had they lost the Windermere Cup last year to the Russian national team, but the Waikato rowers had also defeated them in New Zealand in 2005.

The men more than avenged that loss with a dominant victory, finishing with a time of 5:58.89, which left them with open water between them and the second-place finisher, the team from Purdue. The New Zealand rowers finished third with a time of 6:13.86.

The Windermere Cup races, which routinely boast attendance in the tens of thousands, gave the top-level UW crews nationwide attention as some of the best in the country.

"It's a genuine spectacle," UW men's coach Bob Ernst said. "If you don't have spectacles, you drop off the face of the Earth."

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