By John Sleeper
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – If Bob Ernst is right, and this year’s University of Washington varsity eight is the best he’s ever had, the true spectacle at today’s Windermere Cup on the Montlake Cut might be the Opening Day boat parade.
Now in his 15th year as the head men’s rowing coach, Ernst has a men’s national championship boat on his resume, which fits nicely with his six women’s national championships.
But the 2002 varsity eight might top all of them, as evidenced by last weekend’s upset victory over three-time defending national champion Cal in the Bay Area, the Golden Bears’ first loss since 1998. All Cal has are six Olympians in its racing shell.
“We went in confident,” said UW bow Kevin Smythe, “but we knew what we were up against. Those guys are pretty intimidating.”
Yet, the Huskies beat Cal by 1.6 seconds, half a boat length, and wrested the nation’s No. 1 ranking from the Bears.
Which means today’s opponents, Stanford and Beijing University, likely will get a good, long look at the Huskies’ wake.
Stanford is an up-and-coming crew with a new coach, Craig Amerkhanian, the former freshman coach at Cal.
“Stanford hired Craig because they want to re-develop their program,” Ernst said. “He’s doing a good job. They’ll be good competition.”
Beijing University began its program in 1998 and is just getting into international competition.
“The team was established just four years ago, so we still have a long way to go,” coach Shi Yunjia said. “We have the potential to reach a high level, but we want to learn from the University of Washington and other teams. We want to reach a certain level as soon as possible, but we’re not sure how long it will take.”
Ernst left open the possibility that future Washington crews would travel to China.
The UW women’s eight, which won the national championship in 2001 and also is ranked No. 1 in the nation, faces sixth-ranked Stanford and the under-23 Great Britain national team, formed about three weeks ago.
“They haven’t been rowing very long, but we’re excited by how well the boat’s jelled together in a short amount of time,” British coach Peter Somerville said. “We’re really excited about the prospect of racing Washington, the best States crew around.”
The junior varsity men’s and women’s eights competition has been named the Erickson Memorial Cascade Cup, after Marysville’s Dick Erickson, longtime UW coach who died in July 2001.
The UW men face Washington State, Stanford and Western Washington, while the Husky women race Stanford and Western.
In addition, there will be a match race between Olympic scullers Duncan Free of Australia and Xeno Muller of Austria.
The first of 18 races is set to begin at 10:20 a.m. today.
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