Ellington

The UW crew team put together another dominating performance in the Windermere Cup, as both men’s and women’s varsity boats took home titles for the fourth-straight year.

The estimated 40,000 spectators who lined the banks of the Montlake Cut on an overcast Saturday morning witnessed as the Huskies put on a rowing clinic. Washington won all four marquee events in the 24th edition of the regatta, punctuated with an open-water win by the men’s varsity eight in the last race of the day.

“There’s no better venue in the world for rowing athletes to get to perform than this,” women’s head coach and rowing director Bob Ernst said. “It’s special.”

The highly touted matchup against Oxford turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment, as their men’s and women’s boats both finished third, far behind Washington and Syracuse. Former Husky Ante Kusurin stroked the Oxford boat.

The varsity men’s race saw the No. 1 Huskies find their base rhythm early on before turning on the jets in the last 500 meters. Though they initially led Oxford and No. 7 Syracuse by just a few seats, in the end, the race wasn’t close. Washington won by 10 seconds and finished with a time of 5:39.9.

“This one went really well,” men’s varsity stroke Mathis Jessen said. “We had a good start, we had a good push at the 1000 and a good final sprint today.”

Men’s head coach Michael Callahan credited Jessen and six-seat Hannes Heppner with setting the team’s base that allowed them to cruise to victory.

“It was a great day for us, for sure,” Callahan said. “With how hard we trained this week, the guys are going to feel pretty pleased about this race.”

When asked about his team’s level of preparation for the Pac-10 Championships in two weeks, Jessen said that they “aren’t there yet.” But after the races, Ernst had a different opinion.

“There haven’t been many Husky crews that are better than these guys,” he said. “And no matter how much they win by in an event like this, it doesn’t take anything away from the fact that they’re a world-class crew with world-class athletes.”

Ernst’s women’s boats were just as dominant. The varsity eight won the women’s Windermere Cup final with a time of 6:27.9, finishing 16 seconds ahead of Syracuse and a whopping 27 seconds ahead of Oxford. The results were similar for the junior varsity eight, who beat Western Washington by 11 seconds in the Erikson Cascade Cup.

“I thought the time was pretty respectable,” Ernst said.

After spending much of the Pac-10 racing season shuffling the lineup of the varsity boat, Ernst thinks he’s closer than ever to the right combination.

“We’ve got two freshmen in the varsity boat,” he said. “They’re learning to row with each other, and I think it’s fitting together really well.”

The women appear to be peaking just in time for the Pac-10 Championships, but Ernst knows there is still work to be done.

“Polls are nice for the middle of the season,” he said, “but the bottom line is, you settle it all on the last day, and if you’re not there, you don’t get to be part of it.”

Reach reporter Andrew Gospe at sports@dailyuw.com.