The UCSD men’s crew team returned from more than two weeks without competition to battle at the 31st Annual San Diego Crew Classic Regatta in Mission Bay on April 3 and April 4. This event was the first significant test of the Tritons’ strength against other national crew powerhouses and marks the opening of the most competitive single month of the long season. The men’s varsity eight boat emerged from the water at the end of the weekend with a bronze-medal finish in the Men’s Cal Cup Grand Final, while the junior varsity boat finished the Men’s JV Petite race in fourth place.
On April 3, UCSD raced in the first heat of the opening morning event, the Men’s Cal Cup. Triton sophomore Todd Myer, junior Oscar Carrera, sophomore captian Eric Kuhle, freshman Brendan Carriker, senior Eric Hardeman, junior Adam Homze, freshman Jacob Sendowski and sophomore Steven Oliver knew that a second-place finish would be absolutely mandatory in order to advance to the medal round on April 4. Minnesota ran away with the trial, clocking a time of 6:16.70 for the 2000-meter course. Only a short distance behind were the Tritons, in narrow competition with Gonzaga. Pulling away in the final stretch, UCSD edged out the Bulldogs for second place in a time of 6:23.02 over Gonzaga’s 6:23.19, only 17 hundredths of a second behind.
The top two boats from each of the three heats in the Cal Cup advanced to the Grand Final on April 4, and, based on the times from the preliminary event on April 3, UCSD was seated for fifth place. In the second-from-outside lane, UCSD’s boat looked like a razor slicing through the flat waters of Mission Bay as the eight rowers and junior coxswain Shannon Oliver leapt out strong with the leaders and vied for first against the nation’s best competition, including junior-college [would “community college” be more pc? -hw] wonder team Orange Coast College, Minnesota and UC Irvine.
In the closing strokes, the Tritons found themselves ahead and then behind in a neck-and-neck sprint for third place with the Anteaters. In a near photo finish, UCSD mustered the energy necessary to swipe the bronze from UCI, defeating its rival in a time of 6:36.25 versus the 6:36.45 posted by the Anteaters. Also in the race were crosstown rival San Diego State University, which finished last place in the heat and sixth overall, and Colorado, which finished fifth in the event. OCC took the Men’s Cal Cup Grand Final in a display of sheer power, earning the gold in 6:25.40, trailed by Minnesota for the silver.
This season, first-year head coach Mark Davis helped his team outline a new strategy for winning the crucial spring regattas rather than putting an emphasis on dual meets or less-important races. The San Diego Crew Classic was the first in a series of regattas between early April and early May that will determine the Tritons’ national ranking.
For the 2004 Crew Classic, the Tritons set the bar high for themselves, planning to walk away from the regatta with a gold where they earned a bronze.
April 17 will be the next opportunity for a strong Triton varsity eight to assault their opponents, as UCSD will face off against SDSU and University of San Diego in the annual San Diego City Championships. Just as in the Crew Classic, the Tritons are refusing to allow themselves any slack from the intense ambition of proving themselves to the national crew community and have committed themselves to earning the gold medal at the event.
If the Crew Classic is any indicator of how the Tritons will fare against the local opposition, then UCSD may be looking to improve on its third-place status, as the Tritons sunk each of the other teams handily at the April 3 and April 4 event.
The San Diego City Championships will take place on Mission Bay at 8 a.m. on April 17.
