On Saturday, UCSB’s rowing teams cruised into a promising new year with their success at the Head of the American regatta at Sacramento’s Lake Natoma.

“Overall, we accomplished exactly what we set out to do,” men’s Varsity Coach Derek Updegraff said. “We rowed well.”
The men’s varsity team entered three boats into the 5000-meter course competition. The men’s lightweight eight finished with a time of 17:07 and brought home the bronze, while the open-weight eight took eighth among 14 competing teams with its time of 19:05. Finally, the men’s lightweight four took a controversial second place, losing first place to Cal by one second.

“We had goals that we wanted to accomplish, and we saw what we did well and also what we need to improve upon,”