UCSD women’s crew participated in the annual San Diego City Championships on Saturday. The competition featured the three top teams in the San Diego region: San Diego State University, the University of San Diego and UCSD.

In the women’s novice eight race, SDSU took top honors with a time of 7:36.00. USD came in second with a time of 7:45.70, while the Triton A team came in third with a time of 8:01.50.

“”Honestly, the results are what we expected,”” said Patti Pinkerton, the second-year head coach for the UCSD women’s crew team. “”The big boats were too experienced for our team. USD and SDSU showed their maturity in the eight match, but on the bright side, we did improve from last year. We showed a good deal of growth, which is a great sign for the future.””

In the women’s novice four regatta, the Tritons kept up with the SDSU team for most of the race. However, the Aztecs showed their ability to close out races down the stretch to finish a little over thirty seconds ahead of UCSD.

“”Our novice four team was quite competitive,”” Pinkerton said. “”We experienced some equipment problems in the race, but our girls fought until the end. SDSU has an incredible team, but I can see the growth in our girls. Since last year, we have closed the distance from the top teams, so hopefully, in the upcoming years, we can overtake them.””

The women’s varsity eight race was again a race between SDSU and USD. SDSU finished with a burst of speed to defeat its crosstown rivals with a time of 6:57.80. The USD Toreros finished a close three seconds behind with a final time of 7:00.50. UCSD finished with a time of 7:27.20.

The true strength of the SDSU team was seen in the women’s varsity four race. The two Aztec rowing teams took first and second place, leaving USD and UCSD to battle for third. The SDSU A team took the top spot with a time of 7:55.50. UCSD came in 15 seconds behind USD with a time of 8:24.30 to finish fourth.

On a side note, Amber Hopkins broke the all-time freshman record for the 2,000-meter on the ergometer, a machine that rowing teams use to chart their times without having to be in an actual boat, with a time of 7:20:05

This leaves Hopkins in the top three overall in Triton history in the 2,000-meter. Sophomore Emily Grey is just 0.4 seconds away from the overall lightweight record at UCSD. This shows the upcoming talent that may carry the team in the future.

The next event for Triton crew is the San Diego Crew Classic. The ninth-ranked lightweight eight team from UCSD will go against the No. 1, No. 3 and No. 5 boats in this tournament. The Tritons look to prove that they are one of the elite teams in the San Diego area.

“”Last year in this tournament the lightweight team did well, and we expect most of our crew teams to advance to the finals this year,”” Pinkerton said. “”Even though 20 top crew teams are competing, we expect the varsity eight squad to compete in the final.””