The UCSD men’s crew team’s predictions for a dogfight race at its annual Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships on April 29 at Lake Natoma in Sacramento turned out to be dead on. Though the Tritons didn’t earn the first-place finish they were hoping for, the varsity eight boat came in third place only 0.9 seconds behind first-place Gonzaga University and second-place UC Davis.

The three boats were so close at the finish that the results were decided after 10 minutes of video review, making UCSD’s third-place spot feel like first.

“”The win came down to whoever had their blades in the water last,”” senior varsity eight coxswain Joseph Gram said. “”Everyone pushed their hardest and it was the best race that we could have done. We definitely didn’t come out of the boat feeling defeated or regretful at all.””

Six teams competed in the varsity eight heat, but there was a consistently sizeable margin between the first three and last three boats throughout the entire race as Gonzaga University, UC Davis and UCSD battled it out for the lead.

The Tritons’ start was clean and in steady unison, and the team demonstrated efficiency with 37 strokes per minute in the majority of the race according to the senior captain and varsity eight rower Brenden Carriker.

“”Coming into the last 500 meters, your body just goes completely numb from all the lactic acid building up,”” Carriker said. “”All eight of us just collapsed after the race and couldn’t move for a couple minutes.””

While other sports must keep endurance in mind for longer stretches of time, crew athletes force their bodies to pack all of their efforts into a few minutes’ time, which can be extremely overwhelming by the end of a race.

The varsity eight boat’s lineup consisted of seniors Michael Zurko, Ryan Andre, Darren Von Platten, Gilbert Collins, Sean Hay, Carriker and Gram and juniors Tyler Sutterly and Derek Huffman.

The seven seniors’ experience with physical and emotional intensity contributed to the close results of the race.

“”In races like this you have to have complete focus on your own boat and not pay attention to those around you, so the seniors have had a lot of training with that at this point, which helps with the overall speed of our boat,”” Carriker said. “”Last year we had a fast lineup, but this year the difference has been consistent speed as a unit.””

The UCSD junior varsity eight squad, which competed right before the varsity eight team, also found new speed this season due to a new lineup change, which earned them a second-place finish – only one second behind Gonzaga University.

Both teams were satisfied with their performances overall and now turn their attention to the East Coast Athletic Conference National Invitational Rowing Championships at Cherry Hill, N.J. on May 12 and 13.

“”Our main goal [for the ECACs] is to make it to the grand finals round, which we have never done before,”” Carriker said. “”We’re also looking forward to facing UC Davis again and hopefully switching up the placing.””