The UCLA Men's Rowing team traveled this weekend to Gainesville, Georgia to compete in the American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA) National Championships on Lake Lanier. Last year marked the first time in almost a decade that the team sent multiple 8s to Georgia, as both Varsity 8s finished strong against heavy competition and the Novice 8 outsprinted Notre Dame to win their B final. After a long season headlined by a strong recruit class and fast finishes throughout the spring, the Bruins return to the site of the 1996 Olympic rowing events on Lake Lanier looking to build on last year's performance and make a strong impression on a national scale. You can follow along Saturday and Sunday morning with the official ACRA livestream.

Due to weather forecasts of a thunderstorm approaching this weekend, regatta organizers have changed the structure of the races from previous years. Instead of racing in heats all boats will participate in a time trial on Saturday, and the top performers from each event will be selected to either race in semifinals or proceed directly to finals. Despite the structure change from previous years, the Bruins remain unblinking in the face of the upcoming storm and hope to turn this change of plans to their advantage.

Three 8s and a squad of small boats are slated to race for medals this weekend. First off at 7:30 AM EST on Saturday will be the Varsity 8, featuring Adela Armstrong-Spielberg at coxswain and (from stern to bow) Dominic Pardini, Trevor Phillips, Peter Frederick, Julio Alvarado, Ben Koch, Chase Bakkeby, Zack Kline, and Alan McIvor. Despite a strong field competing for the most coveted medals of the weekend, this crew is hungry and confident in the training they've put in all season. Racing with bow number 13, UCLA will likely go off not long after the trial begins, look to advance to the semifinals at 1:30 PM later that day.

Next will be the Varsity 4 at 8:01 AM. The sixteenth boat to go off in their time trial, Kate Hirth, Mark Replogle, Troy Harding, Rhodri John, and John Kinnear will look to hold off strong competition and advance to the semifinals (which start at 1:54 PM) for a shot at grand finals on Sunday. After that, the Open 4x time trial at 8:43 AM will see the crew of Shaye Busse, Tyler Miao, Matt Horner, and Zach Alter attempt to secure a strong seed and lane for semifinals at 2:30 PM. The pair of Matt King and Sean Pierce will race in the Open 2- time trial at 9:49 AM with the hope of qualifying for semifinals at 3:30 PM. The Open 2x time trial at 10:15 AM will see Jeremy Onofrei and Andrew Nakamura racing for a spot in the double's semifinals at 3:54 PM.

At 9:04 AM the Novice 8 time trial will begin. Coxswain Brandon Bettinger, along with Harrison Zilli, Antonio Raphael, Zack Ferrin, Austin Chang, Erik Hsu-Storaker, Kii Kellerman, Dashen Wada, and Andrew Selius, hope to build on their strong showings throughout the season and earn a spot in the semifinals at 2:54 PM with a chance to advance to the grand final. The 2nd Novice 8 time trial will begin at 11:15 AM as the crew of Laura Hartley, Omer Elmadbouh, Emmanuel Velasquez, Parker Harrell, Nathan Cheung, Daniel Lu, Adam Kaba, Juan-Pablo Almanza-Soto, and John Chou hopes to secure a strong lane as they advance straight to the final on Sunday.

The team is excited for the chance to chase some championships this weekend, and we hope you will follow us along through a busy day of racing Saturday. Don't forget to tune in for more updates as they come throughout the weekend.