Ask just about any collegiate rowing coach about the progress of their crew during the regular racing season, and they most often talk about races that provide chances for athletes to earn opportunities, for team dynamics and cultures to gel, and finding the right lineups.

Regular season racing is good for conversation; winning certainly builds team confidence, but wins and losses really only add up to points for the polls rankings. And, while no coach discounts the value of a winning record, when pressed about the importance of any particular weekend on the calendar, coaches all say only the championships really matter.

Or as Yale head coach Steve Gladstone put it this week, the championships are "the races that define your season." University of Washington coach Mike Callahan agrees with that sentiment. There are, however, a couple of notable races that are exceptions to that thinking. And both Gladstone and Callahan brought them up in separate conversations with row2k this week. They are the in-season dual between Washington and the University of California, and the post season dual between Harvard and Yale.

The Harvard-Yale Boat Race is seriously too far off to start pumping the hype.

But this weekend, the Washington-Cal dual is on the schedule, and it is a race with not just poll implications, but a race steeped in tradition and lore. Just to recap: The 115-year-old event was once broadcast live nationally from a train that followed the race; racing shells were transported by ship to the regatta; the overall score is 73 wins for Washington and 31 for Cal, with one tie.

If that's enough, the showdown features two teams that have not lost yet this season. And, yes, there are poll implications on top of all that.

So, as Callahan put it - by quoting Cal coach Mike Teti, of all people - "You're not going to be getting your hot dog during this one.

"Similar to the Harvard-Yale Race, this race, especially in the last 10 to 15 years, has been one of the most anticipated in collegiate rowing," Callahan said. "And it's going to be exciting. Both are contenders, there are incredible student athletes on both sides, there is an incredible history, and we both have very invested alumni groups and universities invested in our programs," Callahan said.

So far this season, Cal has been on top of their schedule and have not lost a race. Cal swept at the San Diego Crew Classic and followed up last weekend at the Stanford Invite sweeping all comers, including Oregon State and Wisconsin.

Washington, did not race last weekend, but are also having a stellar season and have sweeps at the Husky Open and dual racing wins against Stanford and Oregon State. Sets up an event worth paying attention to. "It's exciting," Callahan said. "And it the kind of event rowing needs."

It is certainly not the only racing of importance this weekend. The slate is full, and with regional championships on both coasts on the foreseeable horizon, most teams have a race that could have poll implications, and will certainly fit into the above mentioned regular season importance bucket of finding lineups, developing athletes and building team confidences and cultures.

Heavyweight Men

Yale 1V in Copley Cup Racing at the San Diego Crew Classic

Since losing to Cal in San Diego, Yale has been in top form. Yale was third in last week's poll behind Cal (1) and Washington (2) and are coming off a sweep of Columbia and Penn. They face Cornell and Princeton in Ithaca Saturday.

Other than the Crew Classic, Yale has not lost, and the progress of the team is right where Gladstone wants it. "I think San Diego was good," he said this week, noting that his crew had to travel, race in borrowed equipment and without one of their top guys, junior Charlie Elwes, who has been out with a rib stress fracture the entire spring season.

Elwes is healthy, Gladstone and has been cleared to row, but will not race this weekend. The plan is to have Elwes rejoin the team after the weekend and take his place the varsity eight, a boat he helped to a national championship last season.

"We will integrate him back into the boat following the Carnegie Cup this weekend," Gladstone said. "If it were anybody other than Charlie Elwes, who is just a major player on our squad, I think it would be difficult to integrate him back into the boat.

"Charlie's accomplishments are so distinct that I don't think there is any issue in that regard. I think the key piece is making sure that he is at full throttle by the time of the Sprints. That is not to say the boat we have right now is not fast. I think it is fast. It's a very solid eight. And so, it will be our job as a squad, as a team, to figure out if Charlie will be at full bore, because what we have is a good boat. If he is at full bore, the boat will be faster."

Among the other races this Saturday include, Dartmouth and George Washington at Brown; Columbia and Syracuse at Boston University; Harvard and Penn at Navy; Rutgers at Bucknell.

Lightweight Men

Harvard's 1V is undefeated heading to the weekend

Harvard University has been at the top of their game this spring (if not the April 4 poll where they were ranked second behind Columbia) and they have not lost a first varsity eight race yet. They ended Cornell's win streak in Ithaca April 7, and then defeated Columbia the next day on the Charles.

Last weekend, Harvard continued the run, defeating Dartmouth and MIT on the Charles Saturday. Harvard swept all six races and the varsity remained undefeated. The Crimson lights race Navy and Delaware in Annapolis Saturday for the Haines Cup.

Columbia, except for the 1V loss to Harvard April 8, has also, been running the table with an impressive spring. Coach Nich Lee Parker is not new to team success, Columbia won the 2016 National Championship, but Parker has the largest squad he's coached there yet, and changed his approach to practice and preparation in September to maximize the depth of the group.

"This goes all the way back to September," Parker told row2k. "We structured how we ran the practices differently than in previous years. Andrew (Hess), my assistant and I, have been working with larger groups and spending a lot more time teaching fundamentals in bigger boats, and allowing people to explore those skills in some of the smaller boats, then drawing things back into the eight and fours," he said.

Columbia 1V racing in Boston at the Wales-Kirrane Cup

"We have a lot of singles and we use those, but we make sure those skills are getting tied into the bigger boats. Overall, I think it's been a long heavy lift to get where we are. This is the largest team I've ever had while coaching here, and it's the deepest team. It's been a long lift to learn how to get that many people up and going and making sure we have all the processes right.

"But that's been really good so far. And with the first and second varsity we've found some things that are working and that's been really nice," Parker said. Columbia races Cornell and MIT at home Saturday and then head to Hanover, NH, Sunday for the Subin Cup dual with Dartmouth.

Also on the lightweight schedule Saturday: Pen and Georgetown at Princeton; Dartmouth at Yale.

ACRA

Weather has been headline news all over the country this spring. And none of it has been good for outdoor sports. The Boston Marathon was run in record cold temperatures, which was made way, way more dangerous by a steady rain that was only interrupted by heavy downpours. Some 2,500 runners were taken into the medical tents, mostly for hypothermia and exposure.

That's probably not going to make anyone in the rowing world feel better, especially since weather forced the cancelation or some races and the rescheduling of others, including moving races forward at the Clemson Invitational; a condensed schedule at the Knecht Cup on Mercer Lake ahead of a weather front that whipped up white caps Saturday afternoon (and left the lake nearly unrowable for the first USRowing NSR on Tuesday), and the complete cancelation of the Lubbers Cup on Spring Lakes, Michigan.

Mercer Lake after weekend rain and wind

Gregg Hartsuff and his University of Michigan guys are pretty much used to cold weather and the typical Midwest lingering winter, but even Hartsuff has had enough.

"It was icy as hell here this morning," Hartsuff told row2k Tuesday morning. "There were cars in the ditch on the way to practice. It's crazy in the entire Midwest. I'm looking at a couple of inches or snow, but it has been so icy. People are sliding off of the road all over the place. And it's after Tax Day."

Dealing with weather and the calendar works against Michigan in a league that already finds it challenging to have a healthy schedule of racing to get up to speed for their championships.

Michigan racing at the Murphy Cup in rough water

Hartsuff said his crew has at least three, and sometimes four, races by this time of year, but there have only been two so far, the March 31 Murphy Cup in Philadelphia (in horrible conditions, of course) and the George Washington Invitational April 6 and 7.

The Lubbers Cup was intended to be a full weekend of racing with his crews getting to the start at least three times. Harstuff finds his crew heading into exam week now and is just trying to find some water time that doesn’t involve a hypothermia watch.

Michigan has been lagging in the polls, but Hartsuff said he is not concerned.

"This is pretty good group of guys," Hartsuff said. "We're better than last year, that's for sure." That is a bold statement, since Michigan is the defending ACRA champion and its highest ACRA poll ranking so far this year is fourth.

"There are some guys who are new to the 1V in there and our water time has been limited. But, they work hard. They come to practice and try to get better every day. We'll get there, I'm not too worried about that," he said. "There are some things that definitely have to happen, like getting on the water consistently, but I think things are coming along."

ACRA polls rankings so far have come from results at the San Diego Crew Classic and from racing Dad Vail crews in Philly. Virginia, was at the Kerr Cup Saturday and finished fourth behind St. Joseph's, Delaware and Temple.

On the West Coast, where the weather has been more forgiving, Orange Coast has continued their dominant season with a sweep of UC Irvine on Newport Harbor.

Michigan sometimes gets to the Crew Classic and can notch a West Coast race before seeing those crews at the championships, but not this season. Hartsuff said the calendar did not work in their favor, and then there was the weather - again (still).

"This calendar year, you had five weekends in March and things just got going a little too early," he said. "And then we had Easter fall the last weekend of March, so you had an early San Diego, which for a lot of Northern Crews like us is a nice race. But when you have had almost zero water time, it isn't so we skipped San Diego.

"It's challenging, because when you are fighting the weather, and coaching in really cold conditions, you kind of have to get on the water and do what you can before the kids get so cold that they are more concerned about how cold they are then how well they are rowing. You're fighting hypothermia. So, you are not getting as many meters, and that is the killer."

The ACRA polls rankings so far have come from results at the San Diego Crew Classic and from teams racing Dad Vail crews in Philly. Virginia, was at the Kerr Cup Saturday and finished fourth behind St. Joseph's, Delaware and Temple.

On the West Coast, where the weather has been more forgiving, Orange Coast has continued their dominant season with a sweep of UC Irvine on Newport Harbor.

This weekend racing for ACRA teams features the Western Collegiate Rowing Association Championships, Saturday and Sunday in Sacramento and the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships, Saturday and Sunday in Oak Ridge, TN.

Orange Coast men's varsity