SAN DIEGO - The University of California San Diego men's rowing team opened its competitive season Saturday against the University of San Diego on Mission Bay.
The Tritons raced a total of five boats in three events - Varsity 8, JV 8 (two boats) and Novice 4 (two boats). Due to a busy day on the water and difficulty getting around boat traffic, races were six-minute pieces with the leader at the end of the time period declared the winner.
In the Varsity 8 class, both crews jumped off the line even and went stroke for stroke for the first half of the race. Every time one made a move, the other countered. UCSD was able to get a half-boat lead with 30 seconds to go, but with a slight turn at the end of the course favoring the inside USD crew, the Toreros were able to make up ground and the two teams tied as time expired. Despite a headwind and outgoing tide, both crews pulled a full 2000 meters in the six minutes.
To break the tie, a four-minute piece and a three-minute piece were run with UC San Diego pulling out victories in both.
The Tritons' Varsity 8 boat consisted of coxswain Isa Batki, Hank Wong, Alec Petty, Sean Callaghan, Jason Germain, Gibb Anella, Tynan Rodger, Steven Bolton and Micah Adelsohn.
The JV 8 boats followed with great races as well. UCSD won by open water in the first piece with USD second and the Tritons' 3V8 close on its stern. In the next two pieces, UC San Diego's JV won with its 3V8 coming back and beating USD's 2V8.
UCSD's JV 8 was made up of coxswain Lily Ouyang, Kenneth Padden, Ryan Newbury, Kevin Chang, Sean Reynolds, Greg Coffman, Gabriel Lane, Carson West and Bryan Brennan.
The 3V8 was coxswain Rina Patel, Daniel Mahan, Anthony Chivetta, Nick Baltar, Nathan Bayardo, Victor De Cos, Andy Marshall, Evan Schmitz and Adrian Dinescu.
USD was able to best UCSD in the Novice 4 event. Rowing for the Tritons were coxswain Mark Ash, William Stock, Anthony Morrell, Alexei Sebald and Nicholas Gennaro.
"It was really an impressive day, both teams are looking very fast for this time of year and it was great racing against awesome competition," said UC San Diego head coach Zach Johnson. "It's always a positive when the coaches aren't expecting that kind of speed at this point in the season and the course ran longer than expected.”
To watch drone footage from today's event, click here.
Up next, UC San Diego competes at the UC Cup Challenge, March 4 in Newport Beach.
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