To say the University of Washington’s crew teams are good is an understatement.

Last year, the women, led by coach Bob Ernst, took second at Nationals. The men, led by coach Michael Callahan, won both the Pac-10 Championship and the National Championship.

The women return with many great athletes from last year, and hope to continue their success from last year. The major aspect that Ernst would like to improve upon is consistency.

“We want to be more consistent and we want to see if we can get a little bit better at the National Championships,” he said. “It turned out great in the end, we had our ups-and-downs, but certainly we want to be more consistent.”

Veteran rower Ashley Jones would certainly like to continue her success. The senior earned a spot on the All-Conference team last year.

Ernst said the women’s team is motivated and the team will certainly have to be if it hopes to top last season’s team.

The National Champion men’s team of 2007-2008 sent Heath Allen, William Crothers, Toby Dankbaar and Jessiah Johnson to the All-Conference team.

Allen also took home the title of Pac-10 Men’s Athlete of the Year, while Blaise Didier earned Pac-10 Men’s Newcomer of the Year. The group was downright dominant last year, and put forth a performance that will be hard to overcome. “We’ve got a lot of guys back from last year,” Callahan said. “A lot of world-class guys, one of whom made the Canadian Olympic team [Rob Gibson]. We’ve got a good mix of leadership and youth on the team. I guess my expectations are pretty high,”

The Washington crew teams are also currently looking for athletes. The UW has a history of producing outstanding rowers out of walk-on athletes, and prospective rowers are advised to look into trying out for the team.

“We’re looking for people who want to be really good at something,” said Ernst. “I’m not too concerned about what the package looks like, I’m just interested in people who want to be a national, or world, champion.”

Reach reporter Ben Foutz at sports@dailyuw.com.