SAN DIEGO - Raising funds in association with Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the fight against breast cancer, the UC San Diego women's crew team presented the 11th Annual Row for the Cure event on Mission Bay Sunday. Both the Triton men and women posted several solid results under sunny skies with balmy temperatures.

More than 600 people participated in this year's Row for the Cure for which between $13,000 and $15,000 was raised, making it the biggest event to date.

The money raised for this event came from both event registration fees and online donations as well as sales from "Change for the Cure" tubes, which student-athletes walked around campus with for in-person donations.

Most of the funds raised at the regatta will be directed towards the San Diego community to support uninsured and underinsured women with breast cancer diagnoses, treatment and services. The remaining funds will go towards breast cancer research at the national level.

The event additionally marked the unofficial start of UCSD's season.

On the men's side, UCSD's "A" teams took first in all three events in which they competed, including the Men's Open 8+ (11:39), the Men's Collegiate Novice 8+ (11:53) and the Men's Open 4+ (12:49). With a time of 13:25, the UCSD "B" team finished second in the Men's Open 4+.

In the Women's Open 8+ event, the UCSD "B" team posted a fifth-place finish with a time of 13:37. The UCSD "A" team (14:14) and "C" team (14:28) placed ninth and 10th, respectively, in the 4.25k event, which was won by the University of San Diego "A" squad in 12:34.

"I thought we performed very well today," said UCSD head coach Colin Truex. "I wanted to see them execute the technical changes we have been working on at practice in a race setting. I saw that and more. They were able to push pretty hard and row very well at the same time. It was a great first race and I expect the results to get even better over the next two weekends."

Also competing collegiately Sunday were crews from Orange Coast College, San Diego State, UC Irvine and UCLA.

The event also featured races for kayaks, outriggers, surf-skis and stand-up paddleboards. 

In the years to come, Truex hopes to see the participation in the event grow, which he believes will yield more funding to battling breast cancer.

"I'd like to see increased participation in all events, from the collegiate and junior levels," Truex said. "We made big strides this year in participation and we'd like to keep that going. And the fundraising and fees will increase right along with the participation. This event has the capacity to grow, and that's what we would like to see over the coming years."

The Tritons will travel to Newport Beach on Sunday, Nov. 4, to compete in the Newport Autumn Rowing Festival. The first event will commence at 6 a.m.

-- UCSDtritons.com --