Pirates retain Berg Cup against UCI, UCSB and ASU

NEWPORT BEACH -- For the second year in a row, the Orange Coast College women's crew finished in the top spot as the Pirates successfully defended their Berg Cup with 21 points on Saturday at Newport Harbor.

Coast edged out UC Irvine (17 points), UC Santa Barbara (15 points) and Arizona State University (9 points) to retain the Berg Cup for 2023.

"We are excited to win the Berg cup for the second year in a row with a very young team," OCC head coach Laura Behr said. "We host this race annually with 5-7 schools joining us every year locally and from Northern California. We are off to a good start after our first big weekend of races canceled this year due to weather. All boats raced well with some tough competition from UCSB and UCI.  The rowers have worked hard this winter and are happy to be racing. We are in a building year and hoping to build some experience and get quality racing in before the championship races at the end of April. Looking forward to Nationals in May."

In the opening race of the event, the Varsity 8, it was a four-boat race for most of the way, with the Pirates battling UCSB, ASU and UCI for most of the 2,000-meter stretch. Coast would eventually pull away and hold on to its advantage all the way to the finish line, winning the race with a time of 6 minutes, 32.5 seconds, with UCSB (6:38.2) second, ASU (6:40.5) third and UCI (6:47.3) fourth. OCC rowers in the Varsity 8 were Julia Dervieux, Raquel Bennett, Devin Morrison, Emma Hallums, Savannah Sennott, Sara Chiaromonte, Lauren Koermer, Mya Zepeda and Isabella Sendowsky (coxswain).  

OCC's other two wins came in the Novice 8 and the Novice 4 and both were dominated by the Pirates. In the Novice 8, the Pirates (Savannah Sennott, Raquel Bennett Devin Morrison, Logan Presho, Nagisa Kudo, Jovana Hester, Katherine Luu, Mya Zepeda and Christian Cristobal (coxswain) jumped out early and reached an open-water advantage before the halfway point, crossing the finish line with a time of 6:43.9, nearly 20 seconds ahead of runner-up UCI's "A" boat, which came in at 7:03.6. UCSB (7:20.6) finished third, followed by ASU (7:29.7) and UCI "B" (7:42.4).

For the Novice 4, the OCC boat, led by Isabella Lluncor Alv, Katherine Luu, Logan Presho, Nagisa Kudo and Blane Griner (coxswain) went 1-on-1 with UCI and it was no contest, as the Pirates finished over a minute ahead of the Anteaters with a winning time of 8:16, while UCI (9:25.6) finished a distance second.

In the Varsity 4, UC Santa Barbara helped keep the Pirates from a clean sweap of the races by topping the field with a time of 7:15.5, ahead of UCI (7:28.3), OCC (Julia Dervieux, Sara Chiaromonte, Lauren Koermer, Emma Hallums, coxswain Izzy Sendowsky, 7:29.2) and ASU (8:12.1). 

The Pirates will return to action on Sunday as the compete at the 2023 Crew Classic at San Diego's Mission Bay, beginning at 7 a.m.