GOLD RIVER, Calif. – For the second year in a row, the Washington men's and women's rowing teams both won the Pac-12 Championship as the two programs combined to win nine out of 10 races, including both varsity eight finals, Sunday at Lake Natoma.
 
Both programs entered the conference championship regatta ranked No. 1 in the nation, with California No. 2 in both cases. Those rankings proved accurate on Sunday, at least, as the Huskies battled the Golden Bears throughout the day, with Cal finishing second in eight races, along with a first and a third.
 
Washington's women scored 45.5 total points (the maximum under the women's scoring system) to earn the team title, with Cal second (36) and Stanford third (35.5). In the men's totals, Washington finished with 72 (also the maximum). Cal was second with 65 and Stanford took third place with 54 points.
 
Last year, Washington's men's and women's team both won the Pac-12 title for the first time in the same season since 1997. The race results were similar as well as, in both 2017 and 2018, the UW women swept all five races while the men won the first, second and third varsity eights and the varsity four.
 
In each of the men's races, Washington and Cal jumped out to the first two spots right from the start and stayed there, as those two teams finished first and second in all five men's races. In several of them, the Bears took the early lead, but Washington was able to come from behind.
 
"There was a headwind that extended the race course, and we had really strong starts at the Cal Dual," explained UW men's coach Michael Callahan. "We thought maybe they'd try to come after us at the beginning of the races. So we needed to weather a strong push from them. We knew the course was long, so we needed to be patient and take our time. We executed when we needed to take seats back on them and capitalized on that.
 
"I'm super excited about the maturity of our team, especially the varsity," added Callahan. "We stayed composed and internal. It's not a matter of how much you lead by; it's putting your bow ball in front. It's another step in our maturity and in our guys trusting each other. It's great to see."
 
Washington led, essentially, from wire to wire in four of the five women's races – all but the varsity four, where Cal took the early lead before being overtaken.
 
"I think today was a really great statement about our entire team," said second-year women's coach Yasmin Farooq. "All through this season, these women have had a lot of changes in their lineups and their boats, and they have always greeted those changes with a smile and with respect for the team-first attitude."
 
"I'm really honored to have such great teammates behind me, in front of me and beside me in every erg and every practice," said junior Elise Beuke, who rowed in the seven seat in the varsity eight. "It says a lot about how, across the board, how focused and centered everyone is on our goals and how we want to execute our races."
 
It was the 38th conference title in the history of the UW men's program (the first conference championship was awarded in 1960) and the 16th for the women (first awarded in 1987).
 
Here are recaps of the day's 10 races:
 
MEN'S VARSITY EIGHT+
California took the early lead over Washington, with a three-seat advantage at 500 meters. The Huskies, with coxswain Rielly Milne and stroke seat Bram Schwarz, stayed close and then drew even with the Bears nearing 1,000 meters. In the second 1,000, the Huskies took control, moving out to as much as a six-seat lead. The Huskies never took their foot off the pedal and rowed to a four-seat victory over Cal. Washington won with a time of 5:51.243. Cal was second in 5:52.691.
 
WOMEN'S VARSITY EIGHT+
Washington's varsity eight, coxed by senior Phoebe Marks-Nicholes and stroked by Chiara Ondoli, sought to defend its Pac-12 title in the featured women's race. The UW shell took the early lead, moving four seats in front of Cal at 500 meters. By 1,000 meters, the Huskies had a full-length lead over the Golden Bears as the Huskies showed their strength. In the later stages of the race, Stanford put on a move to go in front of the Golden Bears for second and mounted a challenged to the UW crew for the lead. The Huskies held the Cardinal off, and won the race in 6:30.122. Stanford was second (6:33.453) and Cal finished third (6:34.533).
 
MEN'S SECOND VARSITY EIGHT+
It was Cal that took the early lead, but Washington moved in front after the first few hundred meters. Coxswain Kimmons Wilson and stroke rower Michiel Mantel had the Huskies rowing a high rate to take a one-length lead at 1,000 meters. The Dawgs stretched their lead even further in the second half of the course, taking an open-water lead over the Bears. Washington won the race in 5:52.994, with Cal finishing second in 5:58.211. Stanford was third and Oregon State took fourth place.
 
WOMEN'S SECOND VARSITY EIGHT+
Washington's second varsity eight, coxed by Marley Avritt and stroked by Brooke Pierson, rowed a dominant race, essentially wrapping up the Pac-12 women's title with the win (UW's points advantage after the 2V8+ was such that the Huskies would have had to finish two places behind Cal in the V8+ final to lose the championship). The Husky boat took the lead from the start. At 500 meters, the UW was eight seats up on the Bears and, at 1,000, the UW shell had open water back to Cal. The Huskies won in 6:36.733, about a half-length of open water in front of the Bears, who finished in 6:42.675. Stanford was third and WSU fourth.
 
MEN'S THIRD VARSITY EIGHT+
Like all of Saturday's races, the UW and Cal moved quickly to the front of the pack in the 3V8+ race. At 500 meters, coxswain Braedan Daste and stroke rower Gert-Jan van Doorn had the Huskies in front of the Golden Bears by about three seats. Cal stayed close behind, but still trailed by a similar margin at the halfway point as the Huskies started to stretch it to nearly a length right after 1,000 meters. The UW kept that lead in tact the rest of the way, crossing the finish with open water between its shell and Cal's. Washington won in 6:00.616, while Cal posted a 6:05.667. Stanford was third and Oregon State took fourth.
 
WOMEN'S VARSITY FOUR+
Cal took the lead over Washington in the early going over the women's varsity four final. At 500 meters, the Bears had a three-seat lead, with Stanford running third. Before the 1,000-meter mark, the Huskies had pulled in front of Cal, taking a three-seat lead of their own. Coming down the stretch, the UW boat, coxed by Madison Mariani and stroked by Anna Porteous, had a one-length lead over Cal. The Huskies rowed to the win in 7:25.156, with just a little bit of open water separating the UW shell from Cal (7:29.156). Stanford was third and WSU fourth.
 
MEN'S FRESHMAN EIGHT+
California took the lead out of the blocks in the freshman race as the Bears and UW went well ahead of the other two boats from the start. The Bears, rowing at a high rate, took the lead into the second 500, but the Huskies kept the Cal boat within striking distance. At 1,000 meters, Cal's lead was nearly a full length. In the third 500, Cal maintained its high rate and its lead. In the final few hundred meters, the UW boat, coxed by Seattle's Adam Gold, cut into the lead, but the Bears won the race by about six seats. Cal's time was 6:07.173, while the UW crossed in 6:09.471, well ahead of UCLA and WSU.
 
WOMEN'S THIRD VARSITY EIGHT+
Washington's women's 3V, with Amanda Durkin in the coxswain seat and Tommie de Rooij stroking, jumped out to a narrow lead over Cal as both of those boats had open water over the rest of the field nearly immediately. At 500 meters, the UW had a seven-seat edge over Cal, with Stanford rowing in third place and WSU fourth over UCLA and USC. At 1,000, the Huskies had a full length, but Cal was still in the hunt. The Huskies responded to the challenge and moved out to an open-water edge just past half way. The Huskies crossed the line first, in 6:44.975, about half-a-length of open water in front of second-place Cal (6:50.821).
 
MEN'S VARSITY FOUR+
Washington's varsity four, coxed by Thomas Fuller, began its race trailing Cal out of the starting dock. The Bears had four seats over the Huskies at 500 meters. However, entering the second 500, the Huskies made a move, drawing even with the Cal shell. After having caught up, the Huskies took the lead and kept it the rest of the way. In the final strokes, the Bears cut into the advantage, but Washington crossed the finish about three seats ahead for the win, in 6:41.900. Cal finished in 6:43.754.
 
WOMEN'S NOVICE EIGHT+
Washington rowed out to the early lead, extending it to eight seats over second-place Cal by the 500-meter mark. Coxed by Olympia's Maddy Cope and stroked by Ellie Bruce of Snoqualmie, the Huskies continued to stretch their lead over the first half of the race, taking an open-water lead by 750 meters. With each stroke, Washington increased the lead and cruised to a win by six or seven lengths of open water, finishing in 6:53.069. Cal took second in a time of 7:12.480. Washington State caught UCLA at the finish line for third place.
 
UP NEXT
The NCAA will announce the 22-team field for the NCAA Championships Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. PT. The UW women will compete at NCAAs, in Sarasota, Fla., May 25-27. The men's programs will have two weeks off to prepare for the 2018 Intercollegiate Rowing Association championships June 1-3 in New Jersey.
 
WASHINGTON MEN'S PAC-12 LINEUPS
 
VARSITY 8+
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: Andrew Gaard (Madison, Wis./West)
3: Chris Carlson (Bedford, N.H./Brewster Academy)
2: Sean Kelly (Princeton, N.J./Plainsboro South)
Bow: Elijah Maesner (Duvall, Wash./Eastlake)
 
SECOND VARSITY 8+
Shell: Grand Challenger
Cox: Kimmons Wilson (Orlando, Fla./Winter Park)
Stroke: Michiel Mantel (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
7: Simon van Dorp (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
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+
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)
 
FRESHMAN 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)
 
VARSITY 4+
Shell: Lou Gellermann
Stroke: Mason Pollock (Los Angeles, Calif./Gunnary School)
3: Max Rennie (Deniliquin, Australia)
2: David Bridges (Portland, Ore./Jesuit)
Bow: Luca Lovisolo (Torino, Italy)
Cox: Thomas Fuller (Menlo Park, Calif./Menlo-Atherton)