UW crews win Pac-10 titles
Published 9:00 pm Sunday, May 13, 2001
Herald News Services
RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. – The Washington women’s varsity eight rowing team won its 10th consecutive title and the freshman men’s eight snapped a three-year losing streak for the eights when it won at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships on Lake Natoma Sunday afternoon.
The Washington women, who were aiming for a sweep of all four races for the third year in a row, added a gold medal in the junior varsity eight and varsity four, but took second in the novice women’s eight.
The men’s races were highlighted by a gold medal performance from the freshmen, who captured Washington’s first Pac-10 championship by an eight-oared crew since 1997.
The Husky men’s varsity and junior varsity eights finished second, behind California, in their grand finals. The men’s varsity four, which entered the regatta with a string of six straight conference crowns, was also second to the Bears in its final.
The Washington women’s varsity eight, whose only loss this year came at the hands of Southern California – at the San Diego Crew Classic on April 8 – avenged that loss by pulling away in the final 500 meters and posting a commanding three-second victory over the Trojans in the conference grand final.
The Huskies covered the 2,000-meter Lake Natoma course in a time of 6 minutes, 40.60 seconds. It was their 10th straight victory and 21st overall in 24 varsity women’s races since 1977.
“We raced really well today,” said junior coxswain Mary Whipple, who is from Sacramento and was competing on her home course. “We had a tough race last week, against Romania, and that put us in the perfect mindset for this weekend. USC moved on us in the third 500, but we kept our cool this time and just kept moving. They were charging but we held them off and pulled away.”
For the third time this season, the men’s varsity eight race saw the Huskies pitted against two-time defending national champion California. The Bears came out on top, taking an open water lead at the halfway mark and winning their fourth straight Pac-10 title in a time of 5:51.79, with the Huskies second at 6:01.89.
“California has a good program and they are a little bit stronger than us right now,” said head men’s coach Bob Ernst. “Our guys are looking forward to seeing some new faces at the national championships. There are a lot of other teams out there to race.
“It’s going to be a real street fight at nationals. We’ll go home and try some different things. We aren’t done yet.”
The junior varsity races saw the Husky women top cross-state rival Washington State, winning in 7:06.79, besting the Cougars by 3.60 seconds. On the men’s side, UW finished second with a time of 6:11.39.
The freshman men kept their string alive, winning their third straight match-up with California this season, this time with a mark of 6:02.00 to the Bears’ 6:05.20.
