SEATTLE — Mother Nature gave no indication that boating season had officially begun Saturday morning, and so the sights and sounds of crew races through the Montlake Cut served as the lone reminder.
Under a steady shower and cool conditions, the 23rd annual Windermere Cup went much like the weather on Saturday afternoon as far as the University of Washington crew teams were concerned. That is, a breeze.
The host Huskies had nary a close race Saturday, cruising to victories in every event that they were entered. UW’s men’s and women’s varsity-8 boats won by a combined 29 seconds in the day’s premier events, while the Huskies also won the men’s varsity-4, the women’s varsity-4, the men’s open-8, the women’s open-8, the men’s freshman B, the women’s Erickson Cascade Cup and the men’s Erickson Cascade Cup.
More spectacle than competition, this year’s Windermere Cup was a pretty one-sided affair.
“Opening Day is always really fun,” said Snohomish native Erin Cox, a member of UW’s winning boat in the Erickson Cascade Cup event that preceded the varsity-8 races. “It went really well. It’s always a good opportunity to tune up for the conference and national championships.”
If Saturday was any indication, the Huskies are ready to roll. Even bringing in some international competition — in the 23-year history of the Windermere Cup, the only non-UW teams to win the men’s varsity-eight competition came from overseas — wasn’t enough to challenge the Husky crew program Saturday. Men’s and women’s teams from Brazil proved to be a bit of a disappointment, finishing a distant third in both varsity-eight races.
The Husky men’s team won the varsity-8 race by nearly 13 seconds, in a time of 5:39.5. Oregon State eventually came in second place, at 5:52.1.
The women’s varsity-8 cruised to the trophy in a time of 6:28.4, a full 16.7 seconds ahead of second-place Miami.
The best drama of the day came after the men’s varsity-eight race, as members of the UW swim teams did what they could to steal the show by jumping into the water at Montlake Cut. The Husky swimmers were making what may be their final performance after the school announced one day earlier that both the men’s and women’s swim programs were being discontinued.
As for Saturday’s so-called competition, the most exciting races typically came down to the battles for second place. More than 18 seconds after the UW men won the Erickson Cascade Cup, UCLA edged the University of British Columbia by five-tenths of a second to finish as the runner-up.
There was also some heated competitio n in the non-collegiate races, and the biggest winner of those battles was the Everett Rowing Club. Everett won both the boys’ and girls’ junior club races. The girls’ team had a comfortable 4.9-second advantage over Rose City, winning in 6:45.2, while the boys’ team edged Capital by 1.5 seconds with a time of 6:03.9.
But in the end, Saturday was all about the Huskies.
And the weather.
“It’s predictable, unfortunately,” Knox said of the rain and overcast skies. “I’ve been to a lot of these over the years, and I’ve had only one really sunny day. It’s par for the course.”
The weather wasn’t the only thing that was predictable about Saturday’s Windermere Cup.
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