WEST WINDSOR, N.J. — The University of Washington’s men’s rowing program captured three gold medals Sunday, including a fourth straight national championship in the varsity eight, at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association regatta.
The Washington men also grabbed national championships in the varsity eight and freshman eight en route to earning an eighth consecutive Jim Ten Eyck trophy as the overall points champion.
The Huskies’ fourth straight national title in the men’s varsity eight was their 16th overall. Since 1895, the first year the IRAs were held, just three programs have won four straight.
The Huskies’ Stewards Cup victory in the freshman eight race was their third straight and 23rd ever.
Washington won the Eric W. Will Trophy by winning the varsity four race. That’s the fifth straight for UW and its eighth since the trophy was first awarded in 1968.
Finally, Washington won the Ten Eyck for an unprecedented eighth straight season and a record 12th time overall.
In the varsity eight grand final, the feature race of the day, Washington went out fast and used strong moves at the 400- and 900-meter marks to overcome California, which had beaten the Huskies Saturday in the semifinals.
Cal, which come out fast in each of its three previous varsity eight races against UW this spring, couldn’t stay with the Huskies Sunday and eventually fell back to a third, with Brown taking the silver medal.
?Cal’s a team that starts really fast and puts a lot of pressure on us and tries to control the race,? UW head coach Michael Callahan said. ?We wanted to get on terms with them really early. We’ve had some explosive moments in our practices, and we saved it up for the last day.
?This was our last card to play. We were generally running even or from behind (against Cal) and today we put out a little bit different race tactic. The guys nailed it.?
The UW eight, which featured five new rowers and a new coxswain since last year’s victory, won the race with a time of 5 minutes, 37.113 seconds. Brown was second with 5:39.626 and Cal was third in a time of 5:42.626. Princeton, Harvard and Yale rounded out the six-team grand final.
The Huskies’ varsity four boat got the day started with its win. Washington broke out to an early lead over Cal and Brown in a tightly packed start and pulled away late in the first half of the race. Brown charged past Cal and into second, but couldn’t catch the Huskies, who crossed the finish line a full length ahead in a time of 6:21.322. Brown finished in 6:24.619.
Washington won the freshman eight race by one of the widest margins of the day. The Huskies finished nearly six seconds ahead of Cal in a time of 5:46.324.
Meanwhile, at the NCAA women’s rowing championships in Eagle Creek Park, Indiana, the Huskies’ placed seventh Sunday with 101 points.
Washington had two boats in the Grand Finals: The varsity eight placed fourth in 6:49.645, and the varsity four finished fifth in 7:48.519.
The top-ranked team from Ohio State won the overall title for the second year in a row with 126 team points, followed by California (118), Brown (116) and Stanford (110).
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