Junior men, senior women take UW Class Day Regatta

Washington rowers opened their schedule beneath sunny skies Saturday morning at Montlake Cut with the 109th annual Class Day Regatta, and the results reinforced hopes that the upcoming season will be similarly bright.

The men's junior class outdueled the freshman and sophomore boats in a tight battle to win the George M. Varnell men's eight, and the senior women cruised to a five-second win in The Seattle Times women's eight.

Men's coach Michael Callahan says the competitive nature of the race bodes well for UW, which lost five seniors to graduation from the crew that won the Intercollegiate Rowing Association championship last June.

"The depth of the program is really strong right now," said Callahan. "This shows that we've had a good training cycle. Now we have to start executing during races."

The men and women crews open intercollegiate competition next Sunday at the Stanford Invitational. The Huskies host their first home event April 10 against Oregon State (men only) and Washington State (men and women).

The junior class, which won Class Day as freshmen in 2008, had to fight off a strong group of freshmen plus a sophomore crew that did not lose a race as freshmen in 2009. The juniors hit the line in 5 minutes 44.8 seconds, edging the freshmen (5:46.6) and sophomores (5:47.2).

Junior Ty Otto, presented as UW's men's varsity captain at postrace ceremonies, said the informality of Class Day allowed the freshman and senior boats to jump the start and put his crew in an immediate hole.

"It's easy to get scared in those situations," said Otto, the son of an Air Force general, "but we were able to stay calm. It gave us a taste that maybe we can work our way back (from big deficits)."

Otto said the junior and sophomore boats almost collided beneath the Montlake bridge. "We were so close to the finish we couldn't let it slip there," he said. "It was painful. Everything was kind of turning into a haze for everyone. We just pushed across the line as hard as we could."

Callahan liked the intensity.

"I've never seen a Class Day race that was this competitive amongst three boats," he said. "Hopefully this means fast boats (in the future) and our guys know how to race in close situations and can pull them out."

The senior women, who also won Class Day as juniors last year, finished in 6:31.5, easily outdistancing the sophomores (6:36.8) and freshmen (6:44.8).

"This race was really important to the seniors," women's coach/director of rowing Bob Ernst said. "I saw them going out in the worst weather this week for some extra training, and we were already doing two-a-days. It was probably one of the most determined efforts I've seen by a class to win."

Women's senior coxswain Isabelle Woodward, a Ballard grad, said she and her teammates took three extra training sessions last week. "We wanted to show everybody that were real serious about the upcoming season," she said. "We want to work hard and win everything we go into."

The UW women rank sixth in a preseason poll. "We have more depth now and a lot of athletic ability," Ernst said. "Because we have depth, we can train harder than we did the last couple of years. We'll see if it pays off in speed over time."