Rowing | Washington men's crew cruises to national semifinals

CHERRY HILL, N.J. — In his 20 years as coach of the Washington men's crew team, Bob Ernst was named Pac-10 coach of the year 11 times, won two national titles and was inducted into the National Rowing Hall of Fame.

"I've heard him described as a scientist with a warrior's heart," said Michael Callahan, who this season took over from Ernst the men's varsity team, which seeks to repeat its 2007 national title today and Saturday at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships on Cooper River.

Callahan added, "I think we have the team to do it."

Washington's unbeaten and top-ranked varsity eight took the first step Thursday by winning its first heat of the competition, easily beating eighth-ranked Stanford.

On a cool but humid morning while facing a slight headwind, Washington cruised the 2,000-meter course in 5 minutes, 53.29 seconds, nearly two seconds ahead of Stanford.

The winners of the other three heats were third-ranked Brown (5:51.29), No. 5 California (5:49.22) and No. 2 Wisconsin (5:51.06). The top eight boats will compete in today's semifinals, with the top six competing for the national title on Saturday.

"We rowed like it was a heat," said Washington sophomore Simon Taylor of Hamilton, New Zealand, who occupies the fifth seat. "A lot of teams were pushing it, but we'll step it up [today] and we hope our best is good enough on Saturday."

Callahan, 34, was recruited by Ernst and rowed for the Huskies from 1992 to 1996. He was named Washington's freshman coach in 2004 and has previously coached every member of this year's varsity eight boat. He said his greatest concern as a first-year varsity coach was not his ability to succeed in Ernst's massive shadow, but to find the motivation it would take to have his rowers repeat as national champions.

"The first thing I wanted to do is make sure there was no complacency in the boathouse," said Callahan, who won bronze and silver medals in his two varsity-eight appearances in the IRA championship.

Two leaders from last season's winning team, Rob Gibson and Max Lang, have taken a year off to pursue Olympic berths, and "we needed guys to fill that vacuum," Callahan said.

This year's varsity eight boat has four returnees from last year's championship boat — junior coxswain Katelin Snyder, junior stroke Will Crothers, senior Heath Allen in the seventh seat and junior Jessiah Johnson in the sixth seat.

Callahan said the emergence of sophomore rowers Blaise Didier, Roko Svast and Taylor helped fill the void left by Gibson and Lang.

As for Ernst, who took over as coach of Washington's women's varsity program and is now director of Washington crew, he'll be watching closely to see what Callahan can do with the talent he has inherited.

"He's a young guy and he wants to make his mark, which I respect," said Ernst, who is 62. "I was the same way when I was his age. I don't crowd him very much at all. My goals for him are that the guys reach their potential which they have — and to see if Michael might be the next guy to lead the program at Washington."

Notes

• All five of Washington's entries — varsity eight, second varsity eight, freshman eight, varsity four and freshman four — advanced to today's semifinals. Washington's second varsity eight and open four crews aim to defend their national titles as well.

• The Gonzaga men's varsity eight finished sixth in its heat and fourth in its repechage race. The squad races in a semifinal today.