UW Crew
UW, Cal renew rowing rivalry today

By José Miguel Romero
Seattle Times staff reporter

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The day after his varsity-eight rowers had defeated California by a boat length in a dual regatta last month, Bob Ernst picked up one of the San Francisco Bay Area newspapers to read about the big win for his Washington team.

Ernst, the UW men's rowing coach, still hasn't forgotten what he read.

"The Cal coach thinks the reason we beat them was they weren't aggressive enough," Ernst said.

So much for giving credit to the winners for a fine race. But such is the no-love-lost nature of the Washington-California rowing rivalry that will add another episode today at the Pac-10 championships in Rancho Cordova, Calif.

The Huskies are the No. 3 team in the nation and Cal is fourth. Oregon State and Stanford are also in the top 20, but the team title and most of the individual championships should come down to the Huskies and Bears.

Washington won the varsity-eight men's title at last year's Pac-10 championships. The Huskies and Bears split two varsity-eight races this season.

"This is really exciting for us because it's another race against a quality program," Ernst said.

After tinkering with his lineup between the varsity and junior-varsity boats all season, Ernst said the changes are over for now because he believes he has found the right combination of varsity rowers.

The UW women's team is ranked ninth, and two of its four boats are top seeds in the conference championships. The varsity eight is the No. 2 seed behind Cal, which defeated Washington twice this season.

But the Huskies have tradition on their side — Washington won 11 straight varsity-eight titles from 1992 to 2002 and seeks to avenge a shocking loss to Stanford last year.
 
José Miguel Romero: 206-464-2409 or jromero@seattletimes.com