Pirates dominate field at 54th Newport Regatta
NEWPORT BEACH -- Under perfect racing conditions, the Orange Coast College men's crew won 4-of-6 races on Sunday to capture the P.A. Palmer Cup at the 54th Annual Newport Regatta.
The Pirates, champions of the Newport Regatta for the third year in a row, finished the competition on top of the P.A. Palmer Cup points race with 25 points, followed close behind by UC Santa Barbara (22), with Arizona State and UCLA tied for third with 10 points.
OCC took care of business in the second race of the morning, winning the Norman E. Watson Cup in the Second Novice 8 event with a winning time of 6 minutes, 23.84 seconds, nearly 32 seconds ahead of runner-up UCSB (6:55.13).
The Pirates continued that momentum into the Novice 8 race and posted another open-water victory to claim the Larry M. Moore Cup for the eighth straight year with a winning time of 6:14.5, 17 seconds faster than second-place Loyola Marymount (6:31.57).
It was three in a row for Coast as the Pirates captured the Robert B. Moore Cup in the Second Varsity 8 race with an impressive winning time of 6:01.44, 14 seconds ahead of runner-up UCSB (6:15.16).
Santa Barbara chipped into the overall points lead in the Varsity 4 race as the Gauchos earned the Condon Johnson Cup with a winning time of 6:54.09, edging out Arizona State (6:56.37) and LMU (6:57.3).
With OCC just one point ahead of UCSB heading into the final race, it came down to the Varsity 8 event and the quest for the James. C. Jorgensen Cup. UCLA jumped out to the early lead, but as the boats raced by the OCC Boathouse, the Pirates pulled ahead of the Bruins and the rest of the field. From there OCC held off the Bruins and Gauchos down the stretch to win the race and the regatta with a time of 5:54.1, just ahead of UCSB (5:56.32) and UCLA (5:57.45).
In the opening race of the morning, newcomer ASU topped the field with a winning time of 7:12.3 to win the Frank Marscellas Cup in the Novice 4 competition.
Coast will continue its prep for the next two weeks before taking part in the 2019 Crew Classic in Mission Bay, San Diego on Saturday, April 6, beginning at 7 a.m.
