Huskies crews cruise in Windermere Cup

On a breezy, blustery morning on the opening day of boating season, Washington crews blew away the competition in the 25th Windermere Cup Saturday on Montlake Cut.

Rowing on choppy Lake Washington water caused by heavy winds, Washington's boats dominated the event's four showcase races with lopsided victories.

UW's top-ranked men's varsity eight cruised to an easy win over 11th-ranked Stanford and Cambridge to give Washington five straight Windermere Cup victories and 19 of the last 21.

The Huskies, who row in the Pac-10 championships next Sunday, defeated Stanford by five boat lengths (more than 12 seconds) with a time of 5 minutes 43.2 seconds. Stanford finished second in 5:55.7, followed by Cambridge (6:02.5).

"The start today was pretty rough for about 500 meters," said junior Robert Munn, a Redmond High School grad who rows in the three seat.

"There were some pretty big rollers out there.

"The big thing for us is our coxswain, Sammy (Sam Ojserkis), told us to stay composed and get into the flatter water. We got to Fox Point, and the race just started picking up from there. We wanted to get out (with) an aggressive race. We accomplished what we wanted to out there."

How high were the waves?

"The boat was rocking a little bit," Munn said. "It was tough to stay on there, but we definitely stayed focused. Today we learned to stay composed even when we have 40,000 people watching."

It was a day of many open-water victories for UW boats in cool, cloudy yet dry conditions. In the men's second varsity race, the Erickson Cascade Cup, UW's JV boat bested Stanford's varsity time by one-tenth of a second, winning in 5:55.6. Stanford's JV placed second (6:14.4), followed by the University of Victoria (6:17.8) and Oregon State (6:22.1).

In the women's varsity Windermere Cup, the seventh-ranked Huskies won by nearly 15 seconds, topping unranked Oklahoma 6:42.6 to 6:57.1. The Cambridge women placed third (7:05.3).

The UW women's JV won in the Erickson Cascade Cup, winning in 6:51.4 over the nation's top two Division II crews, No. 1-ranked Western Washington (6:58.1) and No. 2 Seattle Pacific (7:21.3).

UW men's coach Michael Callahan was satisfied with the varsity eight's performance.

"We were trying to have an aggressive start, but it was tough for everyone," he said. "They definitely didn't feel that they relaxed and got into their rhythm until midrace, then they started getting power on the blade and did a good job in the second half."