The UCSD women’s crew team kicked off its spring season with two road dual-meets last weekend, taking on UC Irvine Saturday morning, then traveling the other direction to compete against Long Beach State the following day.

The Tritons, traditionally a late-blooming team, viewed their Irvine match Saturday as an early chance to see where the team stands against the better–prepared Anteaters, who came into Saturday’s race with three February scrimmages already under their belts.

In the five-race event, UCSD managed to hold its own against UCI, winning the junior varsity eight event as well as the novice four race.

Sophomore Stefanie Barriere, competing for the first time at stroke, led the Tritons’ varsity eight to a second place finish against the Anteaters, ending with a time of 7:18.0 to UCI’s 7:07.1.

Head coach Patti Pinkerton was pleased with her varsity team’s peformance.

“”We were 11 seconds behind them. That’s the closest we’ve been in three years,”” she said. “”We lost, but I felt that we were well ahead of where we want to be.””

The UCSD junior varsity eight one-upped the varsity team by beating their Anteater counterparts, posting a time of 7:42.2 — good enough for a seven-second victory.

Paced by the leadership of sophomore Elizabeth Jones, the Tritons came from behind to take the race by a comfortable margin of two-and-one-half boat lengths.

The Triton novice four boat picked up the second win of the day for UCSD, coming in less than five seconds ahead of the Irvine team with a time of 9:29.8. The boat was stroked by Michelle Pitsley, who led the young team in what was the racing debut for most of them.

The next day in Long Beach Calif. the Tritons ran into a snarl as the organization of the meet fell apart and forced the teams push up the race times and be out of the water by 8 a.m.

“”The head coach at Long Beach wasn’t a terrific organizer,”” Pinkerton said. “”Because he didn’t book the stadium, we had to be off by 8 so the races got moved up 20 minutes. It’s a long way to travel and not get fair results.””

The Tritons experimented with their boat lineups and suffered from it, as the varsity eight lost by five boatlengths to the ’49ers.

“”I tried changing the lineup, and it didn’t work,”” Pinkerton said. “”There was just no magic in the boat.””

Despite the encouraging results last weekend, the women’s crew team still has a ways to go before getting to mid-season form.

“”We are not at race-pace yet; there’s a few tactical things we need to tighten up,”” Pinkerton said.