UW men's crew defeats Cal for the fifth straight time in dual meet

In a rowing rivalry that began in 1903, when Teddy Roosevelt was president and the Wright Brothers first took flight, the 100th race between the Washington and California men's varsity crews produced the same result as the inaugural race: a UW victory on Washington's home water.

The Huskies, who took command of the race near its midpoint, validated their status as the nation's top-ranked crew Saturday by defeating second-ranked Cal by a boat length, delighting a vocal Montlake Cut crowd with a victory of nearly three seconds, 5 minutes, 34.95 seconds to 5:37.61.

The win was the fifth straight for UW in the dual series. All-time, the Huskies lead 70-29-1.

"I was real proud of the way the guys rowed today," UW men's coach Michael Callahan said. "I felt the guys rowed cool, calm, deliberate, collected. We didn't want the emotions to be too much (of a factor). I think they did that. They just rowed their race and brought it back to the dock."

Emotions could have played a role. Beyond the intensity that inherently comes with a long-term rivalry, last June the Huskies were ranked No. 1 entering the Intercollegiate Rowing Association national championships but lost to Cal in the final by just 0.263 seconds.

"After last year that could have been a really emotional race," Callahan. "They just got down to business and executed the race plan.

"Looking in the boat, I could see all the focus was inside the boat, and that was really important to me."

Hans Struzyna, a senior from Bellevue Christian, was pleased to be clutching the Schoch Cup for the third time in his UW varsity career.

"Obviously this rivalry is really big," he said. "It means a lot to be part of something bigger than myself, bigger than any individual or any one boat."

Cal, Struzyna said, broke quickly from the start.

"We got right into our rhythm and we started flipping along at base pace," he said. "We said all week that we're going to trust in our base pace and that's what's going to get us ahead. Around two minutes, 30 seconds is when we felt we had really good control."

Notes

• The UW men's second varsity won by nearly four boat lengths (5:37.87 to 5:47.63). "That was a really well-rowed race, very aggressive," Callahan said. "I think people can see the depth of the team there and the competition within the team."

• Cal won five of the event's eight races, including the men's freshman eight and all four women's races. None of the eight races were close; all but the men's V8 race were decided by open-water margins of victory.

• Cal's fourth-ranked women's varsity eight won its eighth straight Simpson Cup, defeating seventh-ranked UW by nearly two lengths (6:18.5 to 6:24.3).