Washington women’s rowing coach Yaz Farooq was with her team at the Henley Royal Regatta in England late last June when some Australian rowers approached her.
“They said, ‘How do we get into the Windermere Cup?’” Farooq said.
Well, now they’re coming. The Australian national men’s and women’s teams will be the Huskies’ international foes in the 37th annual Windermere Cup on May 6, it was announced Tuesday.
The annual spring rowing event on the Montlake Cut is held on the opening day of boating season in Seattle, and it’s followed by the Seattle Yacht Club’s opening day parade.
The genesis for the upcoming matchups between the Huskies and the Australians was the conversation at Henley.
“That’s how they ended up coming here,” Farooq said.
Farooq said it wasn’t just the Australians who wanted an invitation to the event, and she said proof of the prestige of the Windermere Cup is “that you see people wear their Windermere jacket at the World Championships.”
“It’s considered quite the trophy,” she said.
Both Farooq and Washington men’s coach Michael Callahan expect to get a big challenge from the Australian teams.
“They will be very good, and that’s why we invited them,” Callahan said.
The Australian men were third in the World Rowing Championships last year and the women were fifth.
The Washington men have three rowers on their roster from Australia: Nick Dunlop, Max Taylor and Darcy McCluskey. Aussie Nikki Martincic is on the UW women’s team.
McCluskey and Martincic have competed for Australia at the Under-23 World Championships.
The Huskies, meanwhile, are in the process of figuring out who will be in their top boats.
The Husky men lost several top rowers from the team that finished fourth in the national championships.
“I think we might return four people in our varsity-eight boat, plus the coxswain, and everyone is going to have to earn seats,” Callahan said. “There’s a lot of seats open. I think it’s going to have an entirely different look to it.”
Callahan said he’s counting on seniors Jack Walkey from Canada, Logan Ullrich from New Zealand and Pablo Matan from California to lead the team.
“But there’s going to be a lot of youngsters involved,” said Callahan, who joked that he feels like a freshman coach again in some ways. “I don’t know how it’s all going to turn out in the end.”
Farooq said, “They’re awesome,” when asked to describe this year’s team.
The Huskies, who were fourth in the women’s national championships last year, were third in the varsity eight at the prestigious Head of the Charles regatta in Boston in October.
“It was really a mix of people from all classes (in that boat),” Farooq said.
The stroke for that boat in the Head of the Charles was fifth-year senior McKenna Bryant, who went to Kennedy Catholic High School in Burien. She started her career on the third varsity boat as a freshman and worked her way up.
“It’s going to be really interesting to see who forms (the team’s boats) at the Pac-12 and NCAA (championships) because there’s a lot of people who learned to row here who have really progressed over time and worked their way up,” Farooq said. “It has been super competitive.”
The UW teams begin their spring season with the annual Class Day Regatta on the Montlake Cut on March 18. The Husky men and women are also hosting the annual dual competitions against California. That takes place April 22.
Another highlight for the UW men will be competing in the Sunshine State Invitational in Sarasota, Florida, on April 1. The competition will include national powers Yale, the defending national champion, and Brown.
The Pac-12 championships for both teams are May 14 in Lowell, Oregon.
The NCAA women’s championships are May 26-28 in Camden, New Jersey.
The IRA men’s national championships are June 2-4 in West Windsor, New Jersey.