College crew: OCC wins Newport regatta

NEWPORT BEACH - Orange Coast College crew won the varsity eight

race and was third in the novice eight and novice four events to edge UC

Davis for the overall title at the 35th annual Newport Invitational

Rowing Regatta Sunday in Newport Harbor.

OCC needed a tiebreaker to retain the P.A. Palmer Cup, which goes to the

overall champion, for the 15th straight year.

“The varsity eight had its best performance of the year,” OCC Coach Jim

Jorgensen said. “We had double sessions last week during our spring break

and we picked up speed. It was a complete race for us, because we really

seemed to understand the importance of emphatic finishes on every

stroke.”

The varsity eight, consisting of Todd Seligman, Mike McGuinness, Jeff

Larson, Junsik Hyun, Dan Toth, Aaron Clousing, captain Luke Wright, Tyson

Hellmich and coxswain Sam Yost, finished the 2,000-meter course in 6:00.

UC Davis was second in 6:05.56.

OCC’s novice eight (5:59.8) was eight-tenths of a second behind UC Davis

and less than three seconds behind victorious UCI.

That boat, coached by Dave Grant, included Bill Clifford, Pat Secor, Leo

Shook, Henrik Ljungfelt, Brett Winfield, Scriv Hoppe, Chris Kolstad, Ryan

Davidson and coxswain Julie Kolstad.

The novice four, which passed UC San Diego in the last few meters to

finish third in 7:17, included Ziad Hussami, Rick Warner, Seth

Scartocini, Todd Sarkaria and coxswain Dave Galich.

OCC won the tiebreaker based on head-to-head finishes in three races

against UC Davis.

UC Santa Barbara was third in the 13-school team standings.