Ellington

The Washington’s women’s crew team was all business this weekend on the waters of Lake Natoma, Calif.

The Huskies ended their 2011 campaign on a high note, finishing in eighth place out of 16 teams at the NCAA championship.

The varsity four boat raced to a fourth-place finish in the grand final, while the second varsity eight captured the petite final and the varsity eight ended up in fourth place in its petite final race, all on Sunday.

“Every single race was a good performance, and we had some really outstanding performances,” head UW women’s crew coach Bob Ernst said. “We are trying to reemerge as a national power.”

An eighth-place finish is two spots higher than last year’s 10th-place result, a strong indication that the UW women are steadily climbing back to the peak of collegiate women’s rowing.

The three-day regatta started Friday, when the UW women saw all three boats advance past the preliminaries and into the semifinals.

The performance of the day came from the varsity eight. After fighting its way through several crews in its heat to move up from fifth, the varsity eight qualified for Saturday’s semifinals with a second-place finish to Wisconsin, just missing out on the win on a photo finish.

The Huskies faced tough conditions and unfortunate lane placements Saturday. With choppy conditions, the way the water was flowing gave an advantage to boats in the inside lanes, but the UW was on the outside. Despite a hard-fought race from both the varsity eight and the second varsity eight, they were unable to finish in the top six and qualify for the grand finals, having to settle for the petite finals.

Meanwhile the varsity four was engaged in a heavyweight battle with Princeton for the final spot in the grand finals. After staying dead even down the final stretch, the Huskies were able to edge Princeton out and advance.

The Huskies seemed to use any momentum they gained from earlier in the week during Sunday’s final races.

With Michigan State and Princeton on their heels, the Huskies second varsity eight dug deep and was able to capture the petite finals with a spirited effort.

The varsity eight was able to get off to a strong start in the petite finals as well, edging out Stanford and for a fourth-place finish.

But the big story Sunday was the outstanding performance by the varsity four. Though they were one of the youngest boats in the race, they came out with an intensity that left their coaches in awe.

“Those kids did a great job. No one could have asked more from them,” Ernst said. “They had their race of the year.”

By ending on such a successful regatta, there is a lot of optimism about the future of the UW women’s crew team. It doesn’t hurt that the Huskies have one of the youngest teams in the nation — out of the 25 athletes that the UW brought down to participate, only five were seniors.

The UW has three dynamic freshmen returning in Kirstyn Goodger, Camilla Andersen and Ruth Whyman, as well as the starting lineup from the varsity four, minus the coxswain Michelle Miyauchi. Though this is certainly good news for UW fans, everyone around the program realizes that a lot of hard work will need to be done to once again be regarded as the nation’s best.

“We will see how it goes next year,” Ernst said. “It should be pretty interesting.”

Reach contributing writer Jake Parduhn at sports@dailyuw.com.