The Triton men’s crew team is off to a pleasing start this season, judging by the times it posted Feb. 28 in a dual meet against UC Irvine. The men’s varsity eight finished in 6 minutes, 8.88 seconds, almost 10 seconds in front of the Anteaters’ 6:17.69 on the glassy morning waters of Newport Harbor.

“6:08 is a better time than we had all last year,” sophomore captain Eric Kuhle said. “We were all focused on our individual technique instead of the other team’s boat.”

At the beginning of the season, the team put together a series of goals to win the City Championship, the San Diego Crew Classic, and to medal at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association conference championship. The UCI dual meet served as a gauge for the Tritons to see how they matched up against the clock more than against their opponent. In that respect, the team is not concerned with its performance in these meets relative to the larger regattas.

“We want to win the Crew Classic and [the WIRA championship],” Kuhle said. “We don’t focus on winning the dual meets because we’d rather win the championship races.”

The Tritons’ second varsity and novice boats came to the race with the same mentality as the varsity eight, focusing on their individual goals rather than the victory. In the second varsity race, UCSD was edged out by less than four seconds to UCI by times of 6:35.01 to 6:31.82.

In the novice race, the Anteaters raced two boats to one of the Tritons. UCSD took second place with a time of 6:47.6, as UCI’s second varsity boat raced in at 6:38.4. The outcome was anything but disappointing to the Triton boats, as they are on track to be in peak physical condition in time for the championship races through April and into May.

“UCI has been training harder sooner,” senior Clint Wayland said. “I think that they are going to peak out too early in the season. I think that we will end up peaking later.”

On the whole, the team has expressed satisfaction with its first competition. Of the varsity eight, only two rowers are returning from last year’s boat. The rest are either freshmen or rowers moving up from the novice boat. Additionally, this was the first collegiate race for more than half of the team.

The Tritons will return to the waters of Mission Bay on March 7 at 7 a.m. before going to work on Long Beach State on March 14.