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Rowing through the Montlake Cut (Photo: RR) The 2017 Cal-UW Dual might be the best one ever. And that's really not an overstatement. Don't believe it? Read on.

This past weekend marked the renewal of the oldest rivalry in U.S. intercollegiate athletics, the annual grudge match on the water between Harvard and Yale .

Texas Rowing's Dave O'Neill on the cover of a recent issue of ROWING Magazine This week's double feature combines two separate dual meets. The first took place in Austin, Texas, where the Longhorns took on the University of San Diego , and the results were another feather in Dave O'Neill's already well-feathered cap (maybe cowboy hat now? Do you put feathers in those? He'll figure it out), as Texas swept the Toreros across the three NCAA events.

The buildup to this year's Oxford and Cambridge Boat Races has seen the bookmakers heavily favor  Oxford for both the men's and women's events, and, given the results from the Tideway Fixtures and the indirect comparisons to be made, that seems a logical conclusion. On both counts, Oxford has had arguably stronger results, and a side-by-side comparison of the athletes seems to show that the Dark Blues have the experience and talent edge in 2015. Finishing touches. A photo posted by Rowing Photography (@rowingphotography) on Apr 9, 2015 at 12:01pm PDT However, all of that is out the window as soon as the flag drops and the races begin on Saturday, and Cambridge will be keen to prove the doubters wrong.

This past weekend marked the renewal of the Henley Boat Races rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge, and while the bookmakers have 'tabbed' Oxford as the favorites in the men's and women's Boat Races on the Tideway, Cambridge scored not one but two victories over the Dark Blues just a few miles up the Thames.

This weekend saw the Washington Huskies fly across the country to take on rival Brown University, with a distinctively Northwestern trophy on the line (see below).

The above video documents a little of the University of Victoria's winter training, in preparation for the Brown Cup and the spring racing season in 2015. Below, we offer you an official press release from the University of British Columbia , in preparation for this weekend's competition (including preliminary rosters for the UBC men and women), renewing the rivalry with UVic for the 24th time. The UBC and UVic women raced to a very close finish at Crew Classic last weekend, placing third and fifth, respectively, but separated by only 1.6 seconds. What will this weekend hold?

This week's video comes to us from the still-wintry climes of the Northeast, where the Bulldogs of Yale took on  Brown  men's heavyweight crew over the weekend. The video, shot from the launch, may not have sound, but the result was a resounding early season victory for the visiting team on the Seekonk River (though the race was tighter than the times would indicate—the Bulldogs were leading by a length until a crab by Brown slowed the crew down in the final 200m).

This week's videos come to us from Carnegie Lake, where the Princeton open women took on Yale last weekend, while the lightweight men battled Penn and Georgetown . The women's varsity eights race saw the Tigers take an early lead, and endure several strong moves by a very talented Yale crew to record a wire-to-wire victory—dealing the Bulldogs their first loss of this young season, and keeping the Eisenberg Cup in Princeton for another year.

This week's video comes to us from the U.S. version of the Thames River, which, fittingly, is host to the Harvard-Yale Regatta —America's most venerable intercollegiate competition. The Crimson lead the series by a significant margin, with 95 wins to Yale's 54 in the varsity eight event, and, most notably, Harvard's Harry Parker has been at the helm for some 45 of those victories (his personal record being 44-7 in the event, including victories in 13 of the last 14 seasons). The video includes a bit of history, as commentators Charlie Hamlin (Harvard alum & Olympian in the men's four in 1968) and Andy Card (Yale's varsity lightweight men's coach) provide some background on the coaching and the event. If history's not your thing, you can skip forward to the beginning of the four-mile race at roughly 12:45. Things have been quite hectic over the past few days, with article deadlines to meet for ROWING Magazine —look for a lengthy upcoming featur...

This week's video showcases the No. 1 University of Washington Huskies in their annual dual with then No. 2 California—a dogfight of a race that featured a significant lead change through the final 500m, and which further solidified the Huskies' early season ranking. (NB: you'll have to forgive the Rihanna club remix music—we're pretty sure it's thrown in to cover the voice of the coxswain.) Now, we've reached the business end of the racing season, with ACRAs already in the books for collegiate club programs, NCAAs set to take over Eagle Creek Park, Indiana, and the IRA national championships this weekend on Lake Natoma, outside Sacramento, California. And, you know what that means...yes, it's time for another round of prognostication on our parts! More to come... In the meantime, here are the most recent coaches' polls: NCAA women's rowing IRA men's & lightweight women's rowing Want to suggest the next 'Video Of The Week?...

This week's video covers the men's and women's frosh, second varsity, and varsity eights races from Redwood Shores last Saturday, when the Washington Husky men and California Golden Bear women both posted sweeps of their arch rivals in ideal conditions. The Husky men entered the weekend as the No. 1 team in the country, and given that every Husky men's eight posted a time faster than 5:40 en route to defending the Schoch Cup (including a blistering 5:30.5 in the varsity eight), they will likely retain the top spot in the national rankings. The Cal women entered the fray as the No. 4 team in the country, with Washington holding onto the No. 2 spot following a solid performance at the San Diego Crew Classic. The Cal women, who had to reshuffle their lineups prior to Crew Classic due to two injuries in their varsity eight, came back with a vengeance at the Lake Natoma Invitational just over a week ago, and kept their momentum in a big way, recording a seven-second victor...

While there was a great deal of controversy swirling about the murky waters of the Thames over the weekend, the U.S. intercollegiate racing season continued on Lake Carnegie, where the Princeton Tigers took on Columbia and Penn for the 2012 edition of the Childs Cup. Conditions were less than ideal, but the Tiger heavies manage to row a clean race through considerable chop and wind in the above video, while Penn and Columbia battle it out for bragging rights. The Princeton men nearly posted a clean sweep of the events on Saturday, but the Penn 2F were able to out-duel the Tigers in a very long race (roughly seven minutes) by just over a length. The Stein Cup between Harvard and Brown featured an extremely close race in the varsity eight , with the Crimson taking the victory in a blistering 5:25.4 to Brown's 5:26.0 in Providence, while the Northeastern men swept local rival Boston University to take the Arlett Cup. Meanwhile, over in sunny Southern California, Orange Coa...

This week's video comes to us from The Montlake Cut in Washington, where the Bears took on the Huskies over the weekend for the 100th Schoch Cup. The match-up is the first head-to-head race between the two teams since the Bears came from behind to defeat UW in the Grand Final at the 2010 IRA Regatta, claiming the National Title by just over 0.2 seconds. The UW program is extremely deep, as was in evidence in the 2V and V4 races over the weekend, but Cal battled very well in the 1V, finishing just under 3 seconds back of the No. 1 ranked Huskies, and won the Frosh event by over 5 seconds. The above video is gives a behind the scenes look at the racing over the weekend, as well as some quality footage from the racing. UW Husky Crew's YouTube Channel also posted two other worth-while videos from this weekend. First, an interview with Hans Struzyna (2nd place in the Men's Open at the 2011 Crash B Championships): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpCo6mzI-aI And last, but ...