SAN DIEGO - The UC San Diego women's rowing team opened up its competitive season at the San Diego Fall Classic on Sunday, facing San Diego State and the University of San Diego at Mission Bay.
UCSD's varsity eight group went head-to-head with the top crew from San Diego State, finishing a couple minutes back of the Aztecs in 22:41.0, while SDSU finished in 19:47. The Tritons' eight line-up included Lisa Yen at coxswain, Jesi Bennett at stroke, Wanda Chin at the 7-seat, Denise Kleckner (6), Summer Austin (5), Jaime Bigwood (4), Courtney Escajeda (3), Brigitte Ngo-Trinh (2) and Lynn Nguyen.
"With only three returnees from last year's varsity eight, we tried some different combinations Sunday," said head coach Pattie Pinkerton, who is in her 11th season at the helm of UCSD women's crew. "I thought overall we had a good row and the varsity eight boat did really well."
The varsity four boat was able to finish fourth in its race, while the two novice eight boats competing placed fifth and sixth.
The Tritons will now prepare for the UC San Diego College Challenge at Mission Bay on Saturday.
"It'll be an intrasquad for us," Pinkerton said. "Coming into this fall season we knew we had a lot of work to do. I'd say from what we saw Sunday that we're ahead of the curve."
The UC San Diego College Challenge is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 14 with a 7 a.m. slated start time and will conclude the rowing team's fall schedule.
