Pirates earn four top-5s at WIRA Championships
SACRAMENTO -- The Orange Coast College men's crew is wrapping up its 2023 season, but not before some impressive times against the best of the best at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships this past weekend at Lake Natoma.
In all, Coast raced in seven different events and came up with five top-five finishes, including a dominant first-place performance in the Men's Second Novice 8 race.
In that race, the Pirate rowers (Pierce Lusk, William Womack, Hank Liao, Brock Preston, Alex Dilday, Ben Banner, Joshua Kyles, Patrick Hunter and coxswain Brianna Eggers took on boats from Washington State, UC Irvine, USC, Arizona State and UC Santa Barbara. The Pirates jumped out to an early advantage and left the rest of the four-year schools in their wake, crossing the finish line in open water with a winning time of 6 minutes, 45.7 seconds, nearly 26 seconds faster than runner-up Washington State, who came in at 7:11.66. UCI (7:20.89) took third, followed by USC (7:28.64), ASU (7:37.59) and UCSB (7:43.98).
In the Men's Novice 8, the Pirates broke from with Santa Clara University and UCLA and the six-boat race came down to a three-boat battle to the finish line. In the end, Santa Clara (6:21.18) edged out UCLA (6:22.86) with the Pirates just four seconds off the lead boat at 6:25.89, followed by UC Davis (6:35.22), USC (6:40.23).
A pair of OCC varsity boats cracked the top-5 as the Varsity 8 boat of Alex Roberts, Boet Arisz, Pierce Rands, Gage Saari, Dylan Good, Earl Marvin, Felipe Artia, Davis Schroeder and coxswain Mo Guild placed fourth overall with a time of 6:04.53, just eight seconds off the winning time of 5:56.3, turned in by UC San Diego. In the Varsity 4 race, the boat of Ayden Brown, Sebastian Hasselquist, Ayden Davis, Cameron De Araujo and coxswain Spencer Ewertz placed fifth with a time of 7:02.52.
The Pirates have one final championship in front of them and that's the American Collegiate Rowing Association (ACRA) Championships, which will take place in Oak Ridge, TN, beginning May 19-21.
