Through cheering crowds, chaos and harsh winds, the Club Sports women’s crew team overcame a slow start to finish third in the Windermere Cup, an international regatta held in Seattle.
The Ducks began their race of the Windermere Cup in last place after strong winds pushed them off course, nearly causing them to sacrifice the race. The competition, aired live on Fox Sports Northwest, will be shown again at 4 p.m. Saturday.
The Oregon women finished the open-weight eight race ahead of Washington’s “B” team by three seconds in 7:37. First place went to the Washington “A” team in 7:14, followed by Western Washington in 7:27.
Oregon was satisfied with beating a Huskies second team, considering Washington offers a varsity program and recruits high school students from around the country.
“I was pleased with how well they did,” Oregon head coach Joe Neron said. “Beating a UW team is a great achievement. The team did exceptionally well.”
Oregon competed in an open-weight division with boats of eight people. Open weight allows any number of people in the boat; Oregon raced with just four competitors in the event.
“I was very impressed by our performance,” coordinator Erin Koenig said. “It showed us that we can race well on an eight.”
The Windermere Cup, the fourth race of the year for the Ducks, is an international regatta hosted by the Seattle Yacht Club. It attracts some of the world’s best teams, including Stanford and the Great Britain Under-23 Women’s National Team.
Despite the tough competition, the Huskies, showing good use of their home course, had a clean sweep Saturday. Washington, which has the top-ranked collegiate teams for men and women, won the Windermere Cup, the Windermere Challenge Cup and the Cascade Cup.
Oregon has just two regattas left before the season comes to an end. The Pacific Coast Rowing Championships and the Pacific-10 Conference Championships will be held the weekend of May 18-19.
The Ducks want to make the races on Saturday and Sunday memorable for the team as they will be losing some women next year but also are very confident they can go in and place high, according to Neron.
They want to earn the recognition and have it in their corner as well, according to Koenig.
“I want to show everybody that there is an Oregon crew,” she said.