SACRAMENTO, Calif. ? UC San Diego men's crew completed their second day of action at the prestigious Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships on Friday.  Triton crews placed fifth in each of the three heats they raced in during the second day at the IRA Championships on Lake Natoma.

“It's a learning experience,” said Johnson.  “It's one of those things that they have to realize they belong here and they're fast enough to compete.  I think it can only help us going into the future.”

UCSD first competed in the varsity four with coxswain repechage on Friday, taking part in the third heat of the day.  Georgetown went on to win the heat with a time of 6:53.305, with Brown coming in second at 6:55.367.  The Tritons recorded a time of 7:32.791 in the race.

The freshman eight were the next Triton crew to hit the water on Friday.  As part of the second heat of the freshman eight repechage, UCSD finished behind Cornell, Princeton, Navy, and MIT with a time of 6:21.744.

The varsity eight finished the day for UCSD men's crew as part of heat four of the varsity eight semi-finals.  The Tritons posted a time of 6:22.321 in the race, less than three seconds behind fourth-place finisher MIT.

“We had a really good 1500 meters of the race,” said head coach Zach Johnson.  “We had a lot of illnesses and injuries.  I thought the guys did really well considering the competition, but just couldn't pull it out in the last 500 meters.”

UCSD returns to Lake Natoma for the third day of the IRA Championships on Saturday.