SEATTLE – Sunshine and warm weather brought huge crowds to Lake Washington and the Montlake Cut for the 32nd annual Windermere Cup Regatta Saturday, and those fans were not disappointed as both feature races came down the wire.
 
Washington's No. 1-ranked men edged the top eight from Oxford Brookes University, the British Collegiate champs, by the length of the boat deck, while two UW women's crew lost a tight race to the Dutch National Team, a crew that included seven women from the boat that took sixth at World Championships last summer. The Dutch beat the Washington Purple entry by about two seats.
 
The two races were among the closest in Windermere Cup history, especially given that both the men's and women's came down to the very end. The UW men won by less than a half-second while the Dutch women's margin over the UW was under a second and a quarter.
 
"It was the most highly contested Windermere Cup I've ever seen. It's great to give the home crowd a race like that, all the way to the end," said UW men's coach Michael Callahan. "We knew that Oxford Brookes were a great crew. We knew that they kept getting stronger and stronger and they delivered today. Our hats are off to them. To come all this way and row on our home course and have a race like that says a lot about them."
 
"I think as we get closer to the end of the season, every competitive opportunity that comes our way is going to help us gain speed in the long run," said senior Jessica Thoennes, who rowed in the two seat in the women's Purple boat. "Our Gold crew did a great job today. They threw down a lot of energy, and so did the Netherlands. It was an awesome opportunity for all of us.
 
Washington's men's second varsity eight beat crews from the University of British Columbia, UC Santa Barbara and UCLA to retain the Erickson Cascade Cup for the 20th year in a row while Washington's women's 3V8+ beat varsity eights from Western Washington and Pacific Lutheran to win its 11th straight Cascade Cup.
 
Washington also won an additional six races (three women's and three men's) prior to the featured events. The Husky men and women won in the third varsity eight, open varsity eight open varsity fours. See full results for more on those.
 
Here are recaps of the four biggest races of the day, the men's and women's Windermere and Cascade Cups.
 
Women's Windermere Cup
The UW Gold, coxed by Marley Avritt and stroked by Valentina Iseppi, entry took the lead in the first few hundred meters, barely ahead of the tight field as the three boats passed the 500-meter buoy. The Gold crew held the lead at 1,000 and 1,500 meters, but all three boats remained within very close distance of one another. In the final 500 meters, the Dutch crew, which included six veterans of the 2016 Olympic games, made its move as the shells passed under the Montlake Bridge. Washington's purple crew, led by senior coxswain Phoebe Marks-Nicholes and stroke rower Chiara Ondoli, also passed the Gold crew, but were unable to run down the Dutch, who crossed the finish line in 6:18.394. Washington Purple took second place in 6:19.619 while the Gold crew was a close third in 6:20.569.
 
"We have a lot of seniors moving on to the next level and to have our younger rowers get that experience as well, it's an incredible opportunity," Thoennes said. "I know that we're all grateful to the Dutch for coming over and throwing down as amazing a race as they did."
 
Men's Windermere Cup
The men's Windermere Cup was one of the closest in recent history as the reigning British collegiate champions, Oxford Brookes, and the UW squared off. Washington settled into a lead of nearly a length in the early going and entered the Montlake Cut with that advantage. However, the Brits made their move in the final 500, cutting down the Huskies' lead. Into the final 100 meters, Washington led by only the length of the bow deck, but the Huskies held off Brookes to win by about a half-second. The Huskies won in a time of 5:37.782, only about a half second in front of Brookes (5:36.239). Canadian champion UBC finished in third place, in 6:04.385.
 
"The mantra of the year for us to be mature and win close races, and we won one today," Callahan said. "Finding a way to win is the most important thing. It's not about how much; it's about getting your bow ball ahead of the other crew. It's very important to our program."
 
Men's Cascade Cup
Washington's second varsity eight, under the direction of coxswain Kimmons Wilson and stroke Michiel Mantel, took the early lead and held it throughout the race, beating the UBC second varsity eight and varsity eights from UCLA and UC Santa Barbara. After a relatively close first 500 meters, the UW boat had stretched its lead to open water by 1,000 meters and rowed to a decisive victory in 5:54.547. UBC's second varsity eight was second, in 6:11.596, ahead of varsity eights from UCSB and UCLA in third and fourth, respectively.
 
Women's Cascade Cup
Washington's third varsity eight, coxed by senior Amanda Durkin and stroked by Dutch rower Tommie de Rooij, competed against the top varsity eights from Pacific Lutheran and Western Washington, the reigning NCAA Division II champion, in the women's Cascade Cup. Washington established its lead very early, moving through 500 meters nearly eight seconds ahead of the other two. With the Huskies well in front, the race turned into a fight for second. PLU led through the halfway point, but the Vikings moved in the second half to take the silver. Washington won in a time of 6:41.661. Western was second in 7:08.505 and PLU took third in 7:11.028.
 
Up Next
The postseason gets underway next weekend as the Huskies travel to Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif., for the 2018 Pac-12 Championships. Washington won both the men's and women's titles last year. Racing is Sunday, May 13.
 
UW MEN'S LINEUPS
 
VARSITY 8+ (Windermere Cup)
Shell: Carl Lovsted
Cox: Rielly Milne (Woodinville, Wash./Brentwood School)
Stroke: Bram Schwarz (Haarlem, Netherlands)
7: Viktor Pivac (Belgrade, Serbia)
6: Samuel Halbert (Redmond, Wash./Woodinville)
5: Madison Molitor (Moses Lake, Wash./Moses Lake)
4: Simon van Dorp (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
3: Chris Carlson (Bedford, N.H./Brewster Academy)
2: Andrew Gaard (Madison, Wis./West)
Bow: Elijah Maesner (Duvall, Wash./Eastlake)
 
SECOND VARSITY 8+ (Cascade Cup)
Shell: Grand Challenger
Cox: Kimmons Wilson (Orlando, Fla./Winter Park)
Stroke: Michiel Mantel (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
7: Sean Kelly (Princeton, N.J./Plainsboro South)
6: George Esau (Long Lake, Minn./Orono)
5: Tennyson Federspiel (Bellevue, Wash./Bellevue)
4: Ben Davison (Inverness, Fla./Citrus)
3: Arne Landboe (Shoreline, Wash./Shorewood)
2: Robert Karlen (Everett, Wash./Walter Johnson (Md.))
Bow: Philipp Nonnast (Frankfurt am Main, Germany)
 
THIRD VARSITY 8+ (Men's Collegiate Freshman 8+/3V8+)
Shell: Chuck Holtz
Cox: Braedan Daste (Redmond, Wash./Interlake)
Stroke: Gert-Jan van Doorn (Leiden, Netherlands)
7: Sam Goertz (Bellevue, Wash/Issaquah/Bellevue College)
6: Evan Olson (Bothell, Wash./Bothell)
5: Peter Lancashire (Port Macquarie, Australia)
4: Steve Rosts (Jordan, Ont., Canada/Eden)
3: Harvey Kay (Nottingham, U.K.)
2: Alexander Vollmer (Hamburg, Germany)
Bow: Connor Gann (El Dorado Hills, Calif./Oak Ridge)
 
FOURTH VARSITY 8+ (Men's Collegiate Freshman 8+/3V8+)
Shell: Warren Helgerson '52
Cox: Thomas Fuller (Menlo Park, Calif./Menlo-Atherton)
Stroke: Paolo Bifulco (Portland, Ore./Lincoln)
7: Elliott de Bruin (San Francisco, Calif./Lowell)
6: Carsten Rossen (Seattle, Wash./Cleveland)
5: Austin Regier (Burien, Wash./Mount Rainier)
4: Nick Everett (Brockville, Ont., Canada/Brockville Coll.)
3: Sebastian Ritter (Regensberg, Germany)
2: Harry Fox (Melbourne, Australia)
Bow: Blake Owen (Kirkland, Wash./Lake Washington)
 
FRESHMAN 8+ (Men's Collegiate Open 8+)
Shell: Chuck Holtz '07 '09
Cox: Adam Gold (Seattle, Wash./Seattle Academy)
Stroke: Jack Sclafani (Newport Beach, Calif./Mater Dei)
7: Chase Barrows (Snohomish, Wash./Archbishop Murphy)
6: Cameron Helgerson (Snohomish, Wash./Jackson)
5: Ian Engstrom (Lincoln, Mass./Lincoln-Sudbury Regional)
4: John Danielsson (Bainbridge Island, Wash./Bainbridge)
3: Jeffrey Theirs (Seattle, Wash./Roosevelt)
2: Chase Deitner (Perth, Australia)
Bow: Angus Batstone (Newport Beach, Calif./Tarbut V'Torah)
 
FIRST VARSITY 4+ (Men's Open 4+)
Shell: Lou Gellermann
Stroke: Mason Pollock (Los Angeles, Calif./Gunnary School)
3: Pau Turina (Portland, Ore./Benson Tech)
2: Luke El Khoury (Long Beach, Calif./Wilson Classical)
Bow: Sam Pettet (Seattle, Wash./Garfield)
Cox: Emmiline Nordale (Seattle, Wash./Seattle Prep)
 
SECOND VARSITY 4+ (Men's Open 4+)
Shell: Little Husky
Stroke: Cole Zwierzynski (Portland, Ore./Franklin)
3: Luca Lovisolo (Torino, Italy)
2: David Bridges (Portland, Ore./Jesuit)
Bow: Max Rennie (Deniliquin, Australia)
Cox: Kira Lewis (Belleuve, Wash./Interlake)

OXFORD BROOKES 8+ (Windermere Cup)
Cox: Harry Brightmore
Stroke: Morgan Bolding
7: Harry Swarbrick
6: Matthew Aldridge
5: Rory Gibbs
4: Matt Hnatiw
3: Sam Nunn
2: Gareth Syphas
Bow: Matt Rowe