SAN DIEGO - UC San Diego women's crew competed in the San Diego City Championships early Monday morning at Mission Bay and the season-opening races against University of San Diego and San Diego State provided a solid opportunity for the Triton squad to measure how much progress had been made in the offseason.
"All the boats showed a lot of competitive fire out there today," UCSD head coach Pattie Pinkerton said. "We stayed with the leaders through the first 500 meters and the opening speed showed that even though we might be a smaller team, we still can bring some power too."
The Tritons raced their varsity eight boat and then split the junior varsity eight into a varsity four and a lightweight four.
USD finished first in the varsity eight race with a time of 7:08.28. SDSU and UCSD came in second and third with respective times of 7:32.28 and 8:06.83.
In the Tritons' boat, Lisa Yen served as coxswain while Denise Kleckner (8-seat), Megan Simmons (7), Jaime Bigwood (6), Summer Austin (5), Courtney Escajeda (4), Stacey Yates (3), Jesi Bennett (2) and Wanda Chin did the rowing. Kleckner and Bennett are the captains on the 2010 team.
The Aztecs of SDSU took first place in the two-team second varsity eight race. The Toreros finished with a 7:38.04 mark, just seconds behind the Aztecs' 7:34.54 time.
In the varsity four race, USD secured first- and third-place finishes with its "A" and "B" squads. With SDSU taking second, the Tritons' two boats finished fourth and fifth with times of 9:31.91 and 9:50.07.
The novice portion of the City Championships will take place on Wednesday morning starting at 7 a.m. on Mission Bay.
