In their second competition of the year the UCLA men's crew won three of four events from UC-Irvine and San Diego St on their home course at Ballona Creek.

The novice 8's had a thrilling race to start the day as UC-Irvine jumped out to an open water lead on the field. As the crews approached the 1000 meter mark UCLA began to move back, eventually drawing even with 300 meters to go. The crews went back and forth until UCLA was able to push ahead in the last ten strokes to win (6:41) by 1 second over UC- Irvine (6:42) followed by SDSU (6:54) and UCLA B (7:18)."It was very tight in the last 500 but we stayed focused. When I called for the sprint the guys really responded! It was a very exciting race," coxswain Kelsi Munson.

The 2nd Varsity 8 race unfolded the same way with UCLA giving up an open water lead to UC-Irvine in the first 750 meters. The Bruins 2V also made a tremendous charge in the 2nd 1000 meters but were held off by UC-Irvine in the last few strokes to come up .08 seconds short.

The Bruin's Novice 4 took a different strategy by taking control of the race early and powering there way down the course to a convincing win in a time of 7:19.8 followed by SDSU (7:38.4) and UC-Irvine (7:48.1). "We were all a little tired from racing the novice 8 and new we had to concentrate on good ratio and consistent power. We really focused on a strong second thousand," stroke Trever Maddison.

UCLA's Varsity 8 took advantage of a solid start to take an open water lead on the field in the first 250 meters. They continued to pull away in the middle 1000 meters as the Bruins under stroked the field to a solid win. UCLA covered the course in a time of 6:02.1 followed by UC-Irvine (6:18.2) and SDSU (6:34.3). "We had set a goal of breaking six minutes today so we went out very aggressive, said senior 2-seat Alex Papanicolaou, but weren't able to hold it to the finish. It is something we will have to work on."

The Bruins next compete at the San Diego Crew Classic on March 31- April 1.