As Rylan Cranmore (he/him) — a sophomore and second-year crew team member — rowed down the Montlake Cut in his first ever Windermere appearance, the shouts of the crowd on either side of the waterway faded to quiet. All he heard was the coxswain giving instructions and the sound of his boat slicing through the water. Looking back at the race, Cranmore said the race itself felt bigger than normal regattas, and that it was cool to race among so many talented teams. He also commented on the Windermere tradition of painting the side of the Montlake Cut with a school slogan or insignia, which Inglemoor took part in for the first time this year, painting “Inglemoor Row Viks!” along the wall. Cranmore said how knowing the Inglemoor name is there inspires him now and for the future.
“I love that tradition. It is the coolest thing,” Cranmore said. “I love that it’s gonna stay up for years and that every time we’re gonna do a race through there, we’re gonna know that it’s there and think, ‘Hey, we are a legit team and we deserve to be here.’”
The Windermere Cup began on the first Saturday of May 1987, when the Soviet Union national team, the University of Washington and Washington State University crew teams raced each other down the Montlake Cut. What started out as a Cold War ploy to improve relations between the United States and the Soviet Union has evolved to become one of the world’s premier regattas and a hallmark of Seattle’s prominent rowing scene.
At the most recent Windermere Cup on May 4th, Inglemoor competed in the Mens Jr 4+ Sara Nevin Cup and the Womens Jr 8+ Eleanor McElvaine Cup at the 2024 Windermere regatta. There are six events for youth, eight for non-collegiate adults and nine for college teams. At the cup, the boys raced in a boat of four rowers and a coxswain, placing fourth. Pocock Rowing Club, Bainbridge Island Rowing and Lakeside School placed first, second and third respectively.
The girls raced in a boat of eight rowers and a coxswain, placing third, only losing to Victoria City Rowing Club and Sammamish Rowing Association. Their time of 7:03.8 on the 2,000 meter course is a school record for the girls.
The Windermere Cup course follows the south border of the UW campus, starting in Lake Washington and traveling from east to west through Union Bay into the Montlake Cut and ending in Portage Bay. Thousands of fans congregate on the Montlake Bridge and along the walkways of the Cut to cheer for the races leading up to the main events. Every year the University of Washington races against one collegiate opponent — this year the University of Wisconsin — and one international opponent, this year the Italian national team.
The Italian team was chosen as a nod to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, in which the University of Washington won a gold medal for the US and Italy took silver, both beating the German boat in their home country during Nazi rule. Roughly 1,300 meters into the Windermere Cup course, boats pass by UW’s retired boathouse from that era. To commemorate that historic race, Windermere hosted several of the actors from the recently released movie, “The Boys in the Boat,” which chronicles the journey of the young men who raced in Berlin. Cranmore said how the history of that UW team inspires him to compete no matter the odds.
“Especially after the new movie that came out. You can watch that and think, ‘If they beat the Germans, I can win, too,’” Cranmore said. “Plus, I get to do a sport that’s been around for a long time. There’s a lot of history to it, and we’re contributing to that history. We’re one of the first public high schools in our area that has a team, so we really are changing history. We’re setting a new precedent.”
