A pleasant opening: Scheduled activities for the inaugural Windermere Collegiate Crew Classic began this Friday evening with an all-athlete dinner and reception at the Sofitel hotel adjacent to the racecourse. With most teams staying at this location every team was well represented, and the event offered a rare opportunity for all the rowers and coaches to relax in a non-competitive atmosphere. During the dinner Stanford Head Coach Craig Amerkhanian introduced the participating teams and recognized several key organizers along with Windermere Realty, the main sponsor.

Organized in the Henley tradition this regatta is comprised of a series of dual races. The winner in each category is decided by most wins, and in the event of a tie the margins of victory are compared.

Held at the Stanford racecourse the conditions on Saturday morning were ideal. As Coach Amerkhanian pointed out in his speech the previous evening Redwood Shores offers some of the most fair racing, without appreciable lane advantages.

At 9am the course was already warm with only a slight breeze. The opening race pitted Stanford against Penn in the MV8. Both crews came out hard and the race stayed close until the bridge at the halfway point. It was here that Penn stepped up the rate two beats to a 39 and began to pull away. Both teams ended at a 41, Penn holding on to the lead. Amerkhanian was pleased with his crew’s performance, saying “I thought it was an outstanding race by both crews in perfect conditions.”

Soon after the first race a tailwind picked up and gave the boats a boost for the rest of the morning. Up next were Cal and Wisconsin in what appeared to be the title fight. This was one of the most exciting races of the day, with Cal leading by four seats until the 1600, when the Badgers made a move and forced Cal up to a 43. Over that last stretch the Cal lead shrank from 4 seats, but Wisconsin was ultimately unable to take the race back, losing by .4 seconds.

Navy vs. Princeton was another nailbiter, with Navy taking a ¼ boat lead over the Tigers by the bridge, only to slowly fall back as Princeton cranked the rate up to 40 for the last 500. At 1700 it was Navy by one seat and in the end Princeton inched out in front with a .8 second margin.

One enjoyable advantage of location was that spectators watching from the dock area were able to see crews launch and warm up alongside the racing lanes.

Highlights of the morning included the Stanford women coming away with the best time for WV8 in their race against Virginia. Also, Harvard and Princeton had a close race in the lightweight women event, Princeton victorious by 2.1 seconds. In an interesting course of events Stanford’s JV boat apparently avenged their varsity teammates, winning against Penn by the largest margin of the morning, 13.3 seconds.

In the afternoon Stanford’s MV8 fared better against Navy. With the Cardinal leading by ½ length at the bridge and ¾ by 1500 Navy made a move that almost brought them back, sending both boats to a 40 for the last 250.

After this race the wind changed abruptly from a tailwind to a headwind for the remainder of the day.

Cal triumphed comfortably over Penn and later the Wisco Men had a length on Princeton by the bridge, winning by 3.3 seconds. In the women’s races Stanford again came up with the best time of the afternoon (6:47.7) with a 6.9 second win over Michigan State. Cal and USC both won their races by similar margins.

As the afternoon progressed the results seemed to speak for themselves, with the exception of the JV race between Navy and Stanford. Stanford took an early lead, with a length at the 1000, but Navy moved back and the two crews fought to a Cardinal victory by 2.6 seconds.

After a full day there are still many exciting matches left for tomorrow, and it will be interesting to see which teams can keep their momentum going.