UW men rowers aim for program’s 20th national title, 100 years after the first

One hundred years ago, the Washington men’s crew won its first Intercollegiate Rowing Association national championship.

This weekend, the Huskies would love to celebrate that accomplishment by winning the program’s 20th national title.

Washington will open competition on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, New Jersey on Friday. The varsity eight final, which determines the national title, will be held Sunday.

History is a big part of UW rowing, and Husky coach Michael Callahan said the anniversary of that victory in 1923 on the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie, New York, is very significant.

Callahan said the boat that won the 1923 title was named Husky. In honor of that, he said the team named one of its current boats Husky, and it has the names of those on the 1923 team in it.

“At the beginning this year, I was like, ‘Hey guys, we’re celebrating 100 years of winning this regatta (for the first time),’ ” said Callahan, who has been the head coach for seven of UW’s national titles. “That just shows the legacy of the program.”

The Huskies, ranked No. 4 in the recent varsity eight polls, will need to pull off an upset to win this season.

Top-ranked California defeated UW in their annual dual competition and in the Pac-12 championships. No. 2 Yale has also beaten the Huskies this season, and No. 3 Princeton also figures to be tough.

But Callahan said he believes the Huskies are capable of winning, noting that there have been years when California has been the dominant boat coming into the national championships and UW won, and vice versa.

“You have to be the best boat on the last race and anything can happen,” Callahan said. “We row to win here at Washington, and we always have that in mind. So that’s the work ethic that these guys have had all year, and that’s the goal.”