Pirates win 2-of-3 at Crew Classic
SAN DIEGO -- The first-year rowers from the Orange Coast College men's crew are continuing to show the competition who's boss as the Pirates won both novice races at the 2022 Crew Classic down at Mission Bay.
In the Novice 8 finals, the Pirate eight of Mo Guild, Cameron Herrera De Araujo, Zach Fraser, Gage Saari, Pierce Rands, Jake Queen, Alex Roberts and Ayden Davis battled UCLA and USC down to the final 100 meters of the race and in the end, the Pirates pulled off the victory with a time of 6:34.89, just ahead of the Bruins (6:37.93) and Trojans (6:44.76). It was the first Novice 8 win for the Pirates in this prestiguous race since 1989.
In the Second Novice 8 finals, the Coast crew of Joseph Basalone, Ayden Brown, Sawyer Yendes, Will Giron, Ben Morris, Tim Jagels, Nathan Reyes, Jason Vozovoy and Vince Petokas also went down to the wire with the UCLA second novice boat and once again, it was the OCC "Giant Killers" who came out on top with a winning time of 6:51.62, followed by the Bruins (6:54.13), UC Davis (7:24.87), UCSB (7:57.7) and San Diego State (8:30.28).
In the Varsity 8 race, the Pirates continued to show improvement on their time and placed fifth in the finals with a time of 6:26.6, 13 seconds behind Purdue's winning time of 6:13.69.
Coast will not be racing this weekend, but will return to Newport Harbor on Saturday, April 9 for the 2022 Berg Cup against UC Irvine, beginning at 7 a.m.
