UW crews open season in California

BELMONT, Calif. — University of Washington crews open the season today at the Windermere Collegiate Crew Classic, a match-race event at Redwood Shores.

The Huskies skipped their usual trip to the San Diego Crew Classic last week to open in this event, sponsored by the same real-estate company that has sponsored the UW's Opening Day Regatta every May for 19 years.

The format for this two-day opening regatta is for each crew to race one opponent at a time rather than have six or more boats competing at once.

The third-ranked UW men's varsity faces No. 14 Stanford this morning, No. 17 Michigan in the afternoon and No. 6 Dartmouth tomorrow.

The ninth-ranked UW women have match races with No. 6 Virginia, No. 17 Texas and No. 12 Wisconsin.

If only one crew is undefeated in each competitive classification, it will be declared the winner. Otherwise, ties will be broken based on the combined margin of victories.

There also is competition for junior-varsity, freshmen (men) and novice (women) crews in this regatta and Huskies boats are entered. The varsity men won the Pac-10 title last year and were second to Harvard at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association championships. Four rowers and coxswain Greg King return from that varsity boat. The varsity boat has two rowers from Croatia, two from Serbia, one from Washington (Kyle Larson from Mount Vernon) and three from other states.

The UW varsity women's eight was second in the Pac-10 and failed to make the six-boat final heat at the NCAA championship last season. The current varsity boat doesn't have an in-state rower and has four rowers back from last year's varsity.

The UW crews that stay at home this weekend will compete in the Husky Invitational this morning on the Montlake Cut.

In the most important Pac-10 dual regatta of the season, the Huskies men and women will host California on April 23.

The Windermere Cup and Opening Day Regatta will be May 7 and will feature the Huskies varsities against crews from the Czech Republic and Cornell.

Adding to the opening-day festivities this year will be a public fireworks show over Lake Washington at 9:30 p.m. on May 6, the eve of opening day.