Fresh after winning the Cal Cup trophy for the first time in UCSD history at the San Diego Crew Classic on March 31, the UCSD men’s varsity crew team continued their win streak by sweeping every event against the local competition of San Diego State University and University of San Diego on April 18 to be named the San Diego City Champions.
The UCSD men’s varsity eight boat took first place ahead of local competition San Diego State University and the University of San Diego at the San Diego City Championships on April 18. The varsity four boats also won their respective races.
The meet was originally scheduled for the previous weekend, but was canceled due to rough winds. However, conditions improved and the Tritons made up the match on an early Wednesday morning at Mission Bay.
The varsity eight boat was the second UCSD boat to race and was joined by UCSD’s junior varsity eight boat, which also competed in the race. Both boats finished first and second, respectively, ahead of University of San Diego and SDSU. The men’s varsity eight boat was out in front of the other boats for the entire race and finished one boat-length ahead of University of San Diego.
The winning varsity eight boat consisted of seniors Joe Gram, Brendan Carriker, Shawn Hay, Gilbert Collins, Darren von Platten, Ryan Andre and Michael Zurko, and juniors Derek Huffman and Tyler Sutterley.
The men’s varsity crew team is gearing up for the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships, where the team hopes to earn first place for the first time since 1998. Last year the Tritons came in second behind the University of Colorado.
Despite the wins, varsity captain and rower Carriker was a bit displeased with the boat’s performance.
“”We got off to a good start,”” he said, “”but we weren’t connecting as a team like we should have. We were trying so hard to increase our ratings that we lost our focus for working together. Also, the coxbox was not working, so we couldn’t hear commands from our coxswain, but it was still good to win.””
The UCSD varsity four boat also came in first in the following race by a two-seat lead over University of San Diego as well as the lightweight four boat, which stole first place as well. The novice teams were also very successful with first- and second-place finishes.
Due to the changes in the race dates, the Triton crowd support was very minimal and the atmosphere was a bit lower key than normal according to Carriker.
In the past, UCSD has been the team to beat at the San Diego City Championships, and this year was no different. The races are still taken very seriously, though, and serve as good practice opportunities for the more challenging tournaments to come.
“”We have always been heavily favored [at the San Diego City Championships], so the results were expected for the most part,”” Von Platten said. “”The margins on USD, however, could have been larger, so it was definitely a good wake-up call for us before conference championships.””
The Tritons have channeled all of their efforts toward their main goal of the season, which is to win the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Championships on April 28 and 29 at Lake Natoma in Sacramento. All members of the conference, approximately 20 to 25 teams, will be racing, including UC Davis and Gonzaga University, which will most likely be the toughest competitors for the Triton squad.
One element of surprise, which set back the team’s pre-match efforts for a short time, was an injury to varsity eight rower junior Tyler Sutterly, who was hurt during one of last week’s practices, forcing the team to rearrange their lineup.
“”Having to change the lineup throws everything off in the boat, but at this point, we have everything pretty much back to normal,”” Von Platten said.
The last time that UCSD won the WIRA championships was back in 1998, however, in the past couple of years, they have come in as close as second and third place, according to Carriker. He also said that the team is currently focusing on their anaerobic threshold by doing shorter, more intense sprint pieces at their practices to ready themselves for the big day.
The six seniors likely to populate the varsity eight boat demonstrate the hunger the Tritons have to win this year.
“”In these kinds of races, you can see the other boats next to you out of the corner of your eyes the entire time and it is a heightened level of intensity, so having lots of guys in the boat who have experienced this type of pressure before should be helpful,”” Von Platten said. “”We are pretty confident in our speed right now, but we know that if we are going to win it, we need to push hard to the very end. It will definitely be a close race.””
