LONG BEACH, Calif. ? UC San Diego women's crew raced strong Saturday with UC Irvine and Long Beach State and the Triton novice four boat came home victorious.

The three-team regatta, despite strong winds against the front of the boats, featured fast times and all three squads took advantage. UCSD's novice four boat, coxed by Qiqi Zheng and featuring Elizabeth Longo (stroke), Madison Webb (3-seat), Roxanne Bevel (2-seat) and Kavya Rao (bow), crossed the finish line with a winning time of 8:29.4. Zhing's boat beat out UCI, 8:30.8, and LBSU, 8:35.0.

The Triton novice eight boat, in its 2008 racing debut, came in second place behind LBSU. UCSD's varsity eight boat finished just behind UCI and LBSU, despite a clash with Long Beach State in which the oars from each squad collided.

“I am pleased with where we are right now,” Triton head coach Pattie Pinkerton said. “We have a much longer season than some of the other teams because we plan our workouts around making nationals at the end of the year. We'll be seeing UC Irvine and Long Beach State again in three weeks so by then we'll have done more speed work.”

UCSD put two boats in the varsity four race and those rowers placed second and third behind LBSU. The Tritons finished just five second behind UCI in the lightweight race.

UCSD's next action will be on March 29 at 8 a.m. in the Berg Cup Invitational held in Newport Harbor.