SAN DIEGO — UC San Diego men's rowing took on Temple and the University of San Diego in a dual race on Mission Bay Friday morning, with both the Varsity 8 and Second Varsity 8 finishing second, ahead of San Diego but behind the visitors from Philadelphia. Friday morning was the Tritons' final racing before the Western Sprints in May, where UC San Diego will hope to again earn qualifying bids for the national championship regatta.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Earlier in the week, collegiate rowing experts had predicted UC San Diego's Varsity 8 to finish around eight seconds behind Temple's top boat Friday morning, a prediction which the Tritons proved badly wrong. The Varsity 8 was never more than a few seats behind the Owls, even edging ahead in the early stages of the race. But the Tritons could not quite fight off Temple in the final sprint to the finish, coming in second by only 0.8 seconds. USD finished six seconds later, in third.
 
UC San Diego's Second Varsity 8 had a close finish as well, albeit in the battle for second and third rather than for the win. Temple's Second Varsity 8 led comfortably for most of the race and came across the line with plenty of open water behind them. Further back, the Tritons were battling the Toreros, whom they had not lost to all season. They continued that streak, crossing the line two seconds ahead of their boathouse neighbors.
 
QUOTABLE
"I think the Varsity 8 executed the race plan really well," Head Coach Sean McCrea said. "They came off the water and felt good about the start, felt good about the sprint. We feel like there's a little bit more that we can find in the middle thousand meters of the race. Any time you go on the water, you're going to come off with something to work on. With this race, for them, this was a good result. We didn't get the win, but we were darn close, and we came off with something to work on."
 
"(The Second Varsity 8) is tricky because they have been through a lot, that group. A couple weeks ago those guys won the Crew Classic, and since then we've had injuries and a couple guys walk away from the team, so it's a different group than it was during the Crew Classic. I think just for them to come out here today and put up that fight, that's important for them to be able to do that and walk away with their heads held high today. A lot of work to do, still, coming in to the final three and a half weeks before Western Sprints, but we're looking forward to the challenge."
 
LINEUPS
Varsity 8: Sam Feinberg (cox), Kevork Tchakmakjian (8), Stuart Boynton (7), Archie McKirdy (6), Miko Brown (5), Michael Brown (4), Matt Schade (3), Thomas Wilson (2), Danny Jarotzky (1)
 
Second Varsity 8: Tommy Morehouse (cox), Jake Lopez (8), Christian Gaylord (7), Christopher Cox (6), Ray Gazzo (5), Hayden McCormick (4), Christen Xie (3), Leon Friedrichowitz (2), Austin Newman (1)
 
UP NEXT
The Tritons' next race has postseason implications, as UC San Diego will send their Varsity 8 and Second Varsity 8 to the Western Sprints on May 14, with automatic qualifying bids to the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships on the line. This year's event will be held on Lake Natoma, just outside Folsom, California. The Tritons' First and Second Varsity 8 boats both took top spot at last year's Western Sprints in Chula Vista.
 
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program has begun a new era as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have garnered prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in Division I or II. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.