Pirates make history at ACRA championships!
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. -- It was WELL worth the trip for the Orange Coast College men's crew as the Pirates finished fourth in the NATION at the American Collegiate Rowing Championships (ACRA) on May 17.
With three top-five finishes and just four entries, the Pirates still earned a fourth-place national finish with 412 points, trailing only Purdue University (662), the University of Michigan (615) and Virginia (586) among the 74 colleges in the field. In addition, the three aforementioned universities ahead of OCC in the team standings competed and earned points in EIGHT races, while Coast competed in only four.
Coast earned three Grand Final races over the weekend after qualifying in the top 6 for the Varsity 8, the Novice 8 and the Second Novice 8 races.
The Second Novice 8 (Nolan Murphy, Ray Miller, Colin Reilly, Jackson Fuller, Paul Darakjian, Jackson Rud, Draegon Hennessy and Max Gibson) earned themselves a national championship by topping the field with a time of 6 minutes, 13.69 seconds. Purdue finished second at 6:16.61, with Michigan (6:24.02), Michigan State (6:55.6) and UC Irvine (7:25.49) rounding out the top five.
It was a neck-and-neck battle with the Purdue again in the Novice 8 race as the Pirate eight of Dylan Taylor, Tyler Duss, Joe Morken, Harrison Hunt, Xander Weber, Jake Johansen, Adrien Howe and Aiden Domingo finished as the national runner-up, earning the silver medals with a time of 6:06.46, just behind the Boilermakers' time of 6:05.23.
For the Varsity 8 (Davis Schroeder, Dylan Good, Earl Marvin, Dallas Watson, Pablo Lacar, Ethan Sollinger, Octavio Alva and Felipe Artia) they took on the best of the best and finished fourth in the nation with a time of 5:54.27. Notre Dame (5:47.06), Virginia (5:48.52) and UCLA (5:48.93) had open water on the Pirates, but the Pirates earned open water on the rest of the field, with Rutgers finishing fifth at 5:57.73.
For the Second Varsity 8 (Torin Parsa, Ethan Almarez, Alex Dilday, Jeff Stallman, Charlie Wilt, Dylan Casson, Talon Gutierrez and Jimmy Curry) qualified for the "B" final, where they finished sixth in the race (12th in the nation) with a time of 6:25.73.
"It's Coast's best showing in the 16 years of ACRA and the fastest combined squad in the last 20 years," OCC head coach Cam Brown said. "It was an excellent end to the season for the team and I'm excited to be sending a squad to the Henley Royal Regatta, Temple Challenge Event later this summer."
The Henley Royal Regatta will take place from July 2-7 in Oxfordshire, England. For those interested in donating to the program to help with the expensive costs of the trip, please donate to the team's Eteamsponsor page.
