UW rows to Henley championship

HENLEY-ON-THAMES, England — Washington capped its 100th season of rowing in brilliant fashion yesterday.

UW's varsity eight crew registered an impressive open-water victory on the Thames River, defeating Rutgers to collect the school's first men's trophy in more than 20 years at the Henley Royal Regatta.

The Huskies, who captured the Ladies Challenge Plate, last won at Henley in 1981 when the junior varsity was victorious in the same event. The Ladies Challenge Plate is the second-highest eight-oared event on the Henley docket. The competition involved entries in the highest level of college or club crews that are not national or Olympic teams.

Last year's Ladies Plate winners, Harvard, followed that victory with an Intercollegiate Rowing Association championship this spring. Washington hopes to replicate that feat at the 2004 IRA Championships, seeking its first varsity-eight national title since 1997.

The Huskies went wire-to-wire yesterday, jumping out to an early lead that was steadily extended throughout the race. They crossed the finish line 4-3/4 boat-lengths ahead of Rutgers. UW covered the 1-mile, 550-yard (2,112 meters) course in 6 minutes, 24 seconds.

But the American duo of Jason Read and Bryan Volpenhein lost to Britain's Olympic champions James Cracknell and Matthew Pinsent in the Silver Goblets final.

Two Princeton crews met in the Temple Cup final, with its freshman heavyweight "A" eight leading from the start in a 2-1/4-length victory over its varsity lightweight "B" crew.

In Friday's opening round, Washington rowed to a convincing 2-1/4-length quarterfinal triumph over a crew comprised of rowers from the Nottingham & Union Rowing Club and the London Rowing Club. UW defeated a combined Moseley Boat Club and Imperial College of London crew by two seats in Saturday's semifinal. Rutgers advanced to the championship race by upsetting Dartmouth in the semifinals.

This was the inaugural trip to Henley for the Scarlet Knights while Washington has been a regular visitor. The Huskies last competed at Henley in 1997 when the varsity eight lost by one foot in the Ladies Plate championship race to the Notts County Oxford Brookes crew that served as the British National lightweight eight.

The Washington eight featured seven rowers and coxswain Ryan Marks from the crew that won the Pac-10 championship this year and was runner-up at the IRA Championships. The crew included John Lorton of University Prep, Marko Petrovic, Brett Newlin, Giuseppe Lanzone, Kyle Larson of Mount Vernon, O'Dea High product Sam Burns, Andy Derrick and stroke Ian Sawyer, who rowed on the UW junior varsity during the season. Sawyer replaced Ante Kusurin, who was unable to compete at Henley because of a commitment with the Croatian National Team.

The Huskies rowed in their own boat, "The 101," which was donated by an anonymous UW benefactor prior to the 1997 Henley Regatta. The Empacher eight-oared shell is stored at Jesus College in Cambridge, England, and used exclusively by Washington teams training and racing at Henley. It was named in honor of The 101 Club, a Seattle-based amateur sports support organization.