Pirates open season with solid results at Long Beach
LONG BEACH -- The Orange Coast College men's crew got its race season started on a rainy Saturday morning at the 2014 SoCal Opening Day Regatta, held at the Long Beach Marine Stadium.
"Our results were what we expected for an early season tune-up," OCC head coach Paul Prioleau said. "We gained some valuable race experience for our novices and some good knowledge on where we stand."
In the Varsity Eight race, Coast carried a slim lead over UC Santa Barbara with 300 meters to go before the Gauchos found some extra gas in their tank and edged the Pirates by 2/3 of a boat length with a winning time of 5 minutes, 54.2 seconds, compared to OCC's 5:56.6.
OCC's second Varsity Eight started strong and eventually finished third overall, behind a pair of strong-running boats from UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara.
The Novice boats experienced some troubles, but still managed some solid times. Coast's first Novice boat had to row around a boat that was blocking its lane, but still managed a solid third-place showing behind UCSD and UCSB.
Coast's Second Novice boat started the day with a broken rigger during its warmup and could not compete in its race. Coast was able to later run in an open lane during the Men's Varsity Four race and clocked in the second-fastest Novice time of the day.
The Pirates' Alumni Race will take place on Sunday at the OCC Boathouse, beginning at 10 a.m.
