With thousands lining the Montlake Cut Saturday for Opening Day of boating season, the University of Washington dominated the annual Windermere Cup, winning nine of the 10 races it entered. UW men’s eight won their sixth straight Cup by a five-second, open-water margin over Argentina’s national team. The UW women won their half with a seven-seat triumph over Otag of New Zealand.
UW men, ranked No. 1 in the latest USRowing poll, exploded off the start, taking control from the onset. The Huskies finished in 5:45, easily dispatching the Argentines, who held off third-place University of Virginia.
The clockings: UW, 5:45.0; Argentina, 5:59.8; University of Virginia, 5:59.9; Oregon State, 6:03.6.
“From the first stroke, we wanted to have a really solid piece,” said senior oarsman Rob Munn. “We had a good start right from the first stroke and let the rest of it go from there.”
UW women, ranked No. 6 nationally by USRowing, blew away to a 17-second margin over Gonzaga, 6:35.9 to 6:53.6. Argentina finished the 2,000-meter race in third place, almost 10 seconds behind the Bulldogs.
“I told them to go as fast as they could today,” said women’s coach and rowing director Bob Ernst. “We needed to use this as a warm-up for next week.”
The UW men and women will compete in the Pac-12 Championships next week.
UW men and women also won their Erickson Cascade Cup races, UW men defeating Gonzaga, UW women prevailing over Oregon State.
The only UW loss came in the women’s novice eight as the University of Victoria used a strong start to take a 10-second victory (6:48.9 to 6:58.1).
