NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - UC San Diego men's crew won two of the four events it competed in Saturday at the 43rd annual Newport Regatta, earning enough points to take second place out of the six teams competing.
For head coach Zach Johnson's squad, the highlights of the day came during the junior varsity eight and second novice eight races.
“Both boats rowed great races,” Johnson said. “With the other two groups we still have to work out the kinks and kind of go back to the drawing board though. There is still some speed to get before the conference championships in two weeks.”
The winning JV eight for the Tritons crossed the finish line with a time of 6:10.46, narrowly topping UCLA (6:11.17) and Orange Coast College (6:13.93). UC Irvine came in fourth with a time of 6:23.14. The UCSD boat featured coxswain Cameran Biltucci, Michael Sullivan (stroke), David Payne (7-seat), Richard Lund (6-seat), Nathaniel Taylor (5-seat), Anthony Rubino (4-seat), Brodie Kaster (3-seat), Mark Melikian (2-seat) and Dominic Shiosaki (bow).
UCSD's second novice eight won their race, finishing about six and a half seconds ahead of OCC and well in front of third-place finisher UCI.
OCC took home the 1st place trophy for the most team points after winning the headliner varsity eight race, in which the Tritons finished fourth. UCSD, despite not competing in the novice four race, earned the day's second-highest point total.
The Tritons return to action on May 3 for day one of the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships in Rancho Cordova.
