Pirates dominate field at the UCLA Classic
MARINA DEL REY -- For the second year in a row, the Rigger Brown Trophy made it way down the freeway as the Orange Coast College men's crew topped several four-year programs at the 2019 UCLA Classic on Sunday.
OCC had three entries in the Novice 8 category and two more entries in the Varsity 8 event as the Pirates went up against UCLA, UC Irvine, Arizona State, Chapman and Long Beach State.
Both of the Pirate Varsity 8 boats earned spots in the four-lane grand final with outstanding heat races with the "A" boat winning by 12 seconds in their heat and the "B" boat placing second in their heat, but fourth-fastest overall.
In the final, Coast jumped out to an early lead and never looked back as the "A" boat earned an open-water win with a time of 6 minutes, 44 seconds, a full eight seconds ahead of runner-up UCLA (6:52.3), followed by UCI (6:53.53) and OCC's "B" boat (7:02.95).
In the Novice races, Coast earned three of the four finals spots with the first-, third- and fourth-fastest qualifying times. In the grand final, the OCC "A" boat cruised to an open-water victory with a time of 6:44.3, followed by the OCC "B" boat (7:02.79), UCLA (7:11.82) and OCC "C" (7:35.88).
"We had a phenomenal regatta and it really showed the depth of our program," OCC head coach Cam Brown said. "It has been an excellent start to our season and we now look forward to hosting our Newport Regatta, coming up next."
The Newport Regatta will take place on Sunday, March 24, beginning at approximately 7:45 a.m. down on Newport Harbor.
