For a team that feels like it isn’t getting much recognition in the athletic world, the UCSD men’s crew team is sure making waves. As of April 30, it was creating records as well, the first crew team in UCSD history to win an overall points trophy at the annual Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships.

It was an exciting and, for some, surprising achievement to bring back home. Sophomore varsity rower Andrew Simpson was emotional about the accomplishment.

“Varsity was not even expected to medal at all, and then as they called the last race and we hear, ‘UCSD takes all,’ combined with all of our family and some friends screaming our names,” he said. “It was just amazing.”

Junior varsity rower Gilbert Collins gave credit for the award to the program as a whole, rather than individual efforts.

“It was a great feeling because it means that, while each particular event we may not have nailed first place, it shows the program is going somewhere because each boat placed enough to get that trophy,” he said. “It is very promising for what’s to come.”

For each race the first-place boat received eight points, the second-place four and the third-place two, with the overall trophy awarded to the team with the most total points across all races.

Each Triton team had a heat at varied times of the day on April 29, followed by the finals on April 30. The first race on April 30 was the pair final, in which UCSD placed third of nine with a time of 7 minutes, 26 seconds, behind Cal State Long Beach (7:13) and Colorado State University (7:20).

“We were in the lead the first 1,500 meters,” said junior varsity pair rower Shane Rubin. “But towards the end we kind of lost our steering of the boat and by the time we got a solid control of it again it was too late, and Colorado pulled ahead on the last four seconds.”

Unlike the eight-man boats with a coxswain for steer control, the pair teams must be fully focused on both steering and quick rowing.

The second novice-eight was up next, and UCSD finished third out of five with a time of 6:12, trailing Orange Coast College and Gonzaga University, followed by the first novice-eight boat, in which UCSD once again fell behind the two schools with its time of 5:55.

At 10:40 a.m., it was time for the junior varsity team to hit the ice-cold water.

“We were ahead at 1,300 meters, and then they slowly passed us and that was an intense moment because we just didn’t want to let them go,” said senior junior varsity rower Michael Bravo, referring to UC Davis, which cranked out first place in the last stretch with a time of 5:58, four seconds ahead of UCSD.

The top Triton team set up for its varsity-eight race, as 18 boats launched onto the lake an hour later for the final race of the day.

“In order to beat Davis, we had to row like we’ve never rowed before,” said varsity rower and captain Brenden Carriker. “And that’s exactly what we did.”

Varsity won the second place title for the match, ahead of UC Davis with a time of 5:57 and only three seconds behind first-place Colorado State.

“When we crossed that finish line, we had open water on OCC and Davis and it was extremely emotional,” Carriker said. “We were in lane six and really seemed to come out of nowhere. There’s just something about when everyone in the boat clicks that’s so perfect. It’s indescribable. It’s hard to be able to set ourselves with confidence with teams that beat us all year long. When you feel a bit behind the rest, it’s sometimes hard to pull away from that mindset but this time we gave ourselves no boundaries.”

With the practice schedule the team endures weekly, future prospects appear promising. The team holds two practices a day, six days a week, starting out on the water at 5:30 each morning. On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, the team does high intensity land practice on rowing machines for a good aerobic foundation. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are dedicated to bulking up in weight training, followed by yoga on Fridays, and occasional runs when weather is bad.

“We practice every day like it’s race day,” Bravo said. “We want to leave it all out on the water and have no energy left after a practice, so when those six minutes on race day come, it should be our easiest day, hypothetically. In the mornings, we put four boats out and we get competitive with each other and start racing ourselves for bragging rights, but it helps push us into a real race scenario.”

Such a rigorous routine takes a great toll on all of the other aspects of life for the dedicated group of college students, including academics, though they try their best to avoid it.

“I tend to fall asleep in all my classes and don’t really have much of a social life during crew season,” Rubin said. “We have to get a minimum of four to five hours sleep or we really won’t make it through the next day.”

Collins said that, despite the mentally and physically draining days, it all seems worth it in the end.

“It’s the season that never ends,” he said. “It requires a discipline of having to go to sleep early, rearranging your class schedule according to practices and a lot of willpower. Sometimes I ask myself why am I doing this, but at the end of the day, on my way home, there is very rarely still the question of why. We’re out there with guys who become best friends and you feel a sense of satisfaction in accomplishing in one week what some do in a month.”

With the Eastern College Athletic Conference National Invitational Rowing Championships at Worchester, Mass., on the horizon May 13 and 14, the Triton crew team is still splitting water in full-throttle preparation for the big event.

“Ideally, we want all of our teams to qualify for grand finals, which is not too far-fetched,” Bravo said. “We had to earn our invitation, so we want to show everyone that they didn’t make a mistake in inviting us and give them some good races.”

UC Davis and Orange Coast College are the other Western schools accompanying UCSD to nationals.

“We want to prove to Davis once again that we really are faster and that last weekend wasn’t just a fluke, but that we are going to stay above them,” Collins said. “It is not at all undoable.”