SAN DIEGO, Calif. - UC San Diego men's crew started 2010 off in strong fashion, sweeping all races they competed during the UC San Diego Regatta, Saturday morning at Mission Bay. The Tritons competed against UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, Long Beach State, and the University of San Diego, emerging as the winners in the varsity eight, second varsity eight, novice eight, and novice four.

"It was a good all-around team performance. We showed the depth of our program," said head coach Zach Johnson. "Today was a great way to start the season."

The varsity eight finished with a time of 5:57.9, besting USD by nearly seven seconds. Cameran Biltucci was coxswain for a boat comprised of Michael Monrean, Nathan Morgan, Jay Dee Morgan, Justin Gordon, Drew Madden, Erik Smith, Joey Frank, and Ed Yragui.  The varsity eight boat was ranked in the top-25 during all of last season and continued their dominating performance early this year.  Johnson has been able to field a deep team despite the youth of the team with only four senior members on this year's squad.

The second varsity eight boat included Shawn Kuo, Michael Verdone, Jon Seibert, Justin Hsu, Zach Sharfman, Billy Scherba, Alfred Tam, Kellen Mandehr, and Dan Hallisy. The group finished with a time of 6:09.0, with USD finishing in 6:27.9 and UCI coming in with a time of 6:34.2. Mark Tolentino, Jeff Friesen, Ross Bell, Kenneth De Santis, Justin Walsh, Ryan Brown, Austin Jones, Simon Farah, and Ray Sheng finished the novice eight race in 6:12.4.

The men's rowing team will next be in action on Friday, March 12, competing against Gonzaga and the University of San Diego at Mission Bay. Start time is scheduled for 7 a.m.