Pirates perform well at Crew Classic

SAN DIEGO -- The Orange Coast College men's crew headed south last weekend for the 2019 Crew Classic down at Mission Bay and the Pirates did more than just pick up a suntan.

Coast competed in four races and all four boats qualified for the grand finals against some of the top four-year programs in the nation. 

In the Second Novice 8, the Pirates cruised into the finals and there, the dominance continued as Coast notched a 27-second win over the rest of the field with a time of 7 minutes, 5.772 seconds, well ahead of second-place UC Santa Barbara (7:32.94), third-place UCLA (7:46.7), fourth-place UC Santa Barbara (7:58.13) and fifth-place UC Davis (7:58.53).

In the Novice 8 finals, it was basically a two-boat race between the Pirates and the University of California as both boats put open water on the rest of the boats. In the end, the Golden Bears edged OCC with a time of 6:25.11, just two seconds ahead of Coast's time of 6:27.87.

"The Novice boats showed excellent skill and ability with their results, both posting some of the most impressive finishes in a long time," OCC head coach Cam Brown said. 

In the Second Varsity 8 race, Coast again reached the finals with a solid preliminary effort and the Pirates finished seventh overall with a solid time of 6:35.82, with Yale University taking the top spot with a blistering time of 5:59.8

Finally, OCC's Varsity 8 boat earned its trip to the grand final and there, Coast topped UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara and UCLA en route to a fifth-place time of 6:12.89, just eight seconds off of the winner, Purdue University (6:04.1).

"The two Varsity boats raced incredibly gritty and mature races and I am very happy with their performances against competition from higher divisions," Brown said. "The lessons from this weekend should serve as well as we prepare for the business end of the season."

Coast will return to the friendly waters of the Newport Harbor on Saturday at the 2019 Collins Cup, which kicks off at 7 a.m.