Stanford rowing had the wind on its side this past weekend as it hosted the Windermere Real Estate Rowing Classic. Racing on the Redwood Shores Lagoon — a frequent practice location — the No. 2 men overcame rivals California and Wisconsin to challenge top-ranked Washington in the finale.

The Cardinal had to settle for second, though, as the Huskies held off the Cardinal in all three events: the varsity, second varsity and novice eights. The losses were a disappointing revert after last year’s upset wins by Stanford also at the Windermere. Placing second only to California, the varsity men’s team then received its highest ranking yet: No. 4 in the nation.

“I think last year was our coming-of-age year,” men’s head coach Craig Amerkhanian said. “We have a lot of mutual respect now between us, California and Washington.”

This year, Stanford men’s varsity eight — composed of sophomores Mark Murphy, Alex Osborne and coxswain Ariel Dixon; juniors Silas Stafford, Ottavio Siani and Dave Creighton; and seniors Nate Rooks, Donny Simkin and Kevin Baum — went into the competition ranked No. 2.

The Windermere Classic also came on the heels of the previous weekend’s Copley Cup title for Stanford. In the official start to their spring season, the Cardinal men defeated the then-No. 2 Golden Bears, along with Oregon State and Purdue, to claim a second consecutive cup.

“We got a big boost last week from beating Cal, and from that Stanford rowing has earned a lot of respect,” Amerkhanian said.

Aside from Cal, though, Washington presented a tremendous challenge going into the weekend. Returning many of last year’s rowers, some of whom also have international experience, the team was described as “big, fast and strong” by Simkin.

“We still came in confident, though,” he added. “A lot of teams with high rankings often haven’t been tested, especially early in the season.”

Stanford received its own first test against No. 20 George Washington. In Saturday’s first race at Redwood Shores, the Cardinal varsity eight came out with decisive success, beating the Colonials by just under nine seconds (6:12.72 against 6:21.35).

The next race would be much closer, though, when Stanford went down to the wire with No. 8 Wisconsin. The Badgers led the Cardinal through the 1,000-meter midway point by half a boat length. Stanford made a push, though, and caught up with Wisconsin for a win decided by the final five strokes and just one tenth of a second.

“What’s special about this team is its tenacity, and its collective focus,” said Simkin, who called the Wisconsin race one of the best of his career. “Everyone understands how to work together and move cohesively, and I think we showed that ability against Wisconsin.

“[The team] stayed level-headed and composed, even though we were down...at the midway point,” he added. “We pulled it off in a great sprint.”

The Huskies awaited Stanford in Sunday’s finale, where they affirmed their ranking over the Cardinal with a six-second win (5:47.45 against 5:53.55).

“They were strong throughout the race, and it’ll be exciting to race them again in the [Pacific-10 Conference Championships],” Simkin said.

The Huskies weren’t done with Stanford. In the latter second varsity and novice eight competitions, the Cardinal again came second to Washington, as the Huskies swept all six of their races on Sunday.

“It’s a sign of their depth as a program that they beat us in all three races,” sophomore Graham Carroll said.

Despite the three second-place finishes, Amerkhanian is proud of his teams’ performances, especially in light of their recent wins and rising rankings.

“We did well against a good Wisconsin team and a good George Washington team, and we did pretty well against Washington,” he said. “As a coach, I’m just looking for the student-athletes to reach their potential, and I think they did a good job this weekend representing Stanford rowing and the culture we’ve created.”

That culture is quickly growing as Stanford rowing joins the ranks of teams like Washington, Harvard and Yale. Although the Windermere dropped the Cardinal to No. 4 (with Washington still on top, followed by Cal and Harvard, respectively), Amerkhanian believes the team will continue to challenge in the rest of the season, despite being in the underdog position.

Simkin agreed that Stanford has more speedy performances to come.

“We raced well this weekend,” Simkin said. “We knew Washington would be a fast team, and now we know that it’s going to be a showdown at the Pac-10s.”

The men have a rematch with the Golden Bears this Saturday at 9 a.m., again on Redwood Shores Lagoon.

Women come up short at Windermere

Also competing at the Windermere Classic, the No. 7 Cardinal had a difficult Saturday, losing to No. 15 Tennessee and No. 16 Notre Dame.

“Both Tennessee and Notre Dame were very aggressive in all three varsity events, and showed us that we are going to have to raise our game,” said women’s head coach Yasmin Farooq to GoStanford.com.

The Cardinal came back, though, with wins over Louisville in both the varsity eight and four. Although Stanford led for the entirety of its race against the Cardinals in the eight, the race for the four was decided in the final strokes.

Among Stanford’s lightweight women’s teams, on Sunday the eight team finished second to top-ranked Princeton, while the four team was able to walk away with a win over California.

“I thought the team did really well,” said women’s lightweight head coach Al Acosta to GoStanford.com, regarding the varsity eight’s challenge to the Tigers. “They got down a bit early, but they held on, stuck together and made up some ground at the end. Anytime you can do that against the No. 1 team in the country, you’ve got to feel pretty good about where you are.”

The women’s teams will also compete this Saturday against California.