Ellington

Although the blossoming cherry trees in the Quad are a better-known precursor to spring, the UW crew program’s Class Day Regatta is nearly as reliable.

Both have arrived in full force.

The UW men’s and women’s crew teams began their spring season with the Regatta on Saturday morning at the Montlake Cut, the 109th occasion of the annual interclass races that mark the end of winter training sessions and the beginning of the racing season.

The juniors emerged victorious in the George M. Varnell men’s eight race with a time of 5:44.8, edging out the freshmen by less than two seconds. The sophomores, who won Class Days last year as freshmen and finished the season undefeated, finished third. It was a tightly contested race that saw the juniors take the lead from the sophomores around the 650-meter mark and pull away for the win. Fewer than three seconds separated the top three teams.

Men’s crew coach Michael Callahan sees the results as a testament to the sheer amount of talent on his team, the defending IRA champions.

“I just see the depth of the program is really strong right now,” he said. “There’s a lot of competition, and that’s really going to drive the team forward.”

In the Seattle Times women’s eights race, the seniors won in impressive fashion, finishing with a time of 6:31.5. To prepare for the race, the seniors held extra practice sessions over spring break in addition to their mandatory two-a-day workouts. Their extra work clearly paid dividends as they led the race from start to finish.

“They were really on a mission to win this race today,” said women’s coach and rowing director Bob Ernst. “I had seen them go out in the worst weather this week for extra training. It was really important to them.”

The men and women’s Varsity/Novice races were both won by the experienced, senior-led varsity teams.

After the races, team captains were announced during the trophy presentation. This year, junior Ty Otto and senior Adrienne Martelli received the honors.

The competition displayed on Class Day should carry over into this week’s training sessions as the team prepares for the Stanford Invitational next weekend, its first brush with Pac-10 competition this season. The Huskies may have lost key pieces from last year’s IRA champion men’s varsity eights team, but the performances by underclassmen on Saturday suggest there’s a lot left in the tank.

“We need to start racing,” Callahan said. “We need to know where we are relative to our competition.”

Reach reporter Andrew Gospe at sports@dailyuw.com.