College crew: Pirates capture California Cup

MISSION BAY - The Orange Coast College crew had what longtime coach

Dave Grant called “one of the best days Orange Coast rowing has ever had”

Sunday, winning the California Cup at the San Diego Crew Classic.

The Pirates’ varsity eight, rowing before what Grant estimated as

several thousand fans cheering for the community college underdog,

finished the 2,000-meter course in 5:59, besting runner-up Colgate by

three seconds.

Massachusetts was third (6:03), followed by Western Washington (6:07),

Gonzaga (6:17) and the University of San Diego (6:25).

“This is the first time we’ve competed for the Cal Cup and obviously

the first time we’ve won it,” Grant said. “Usually, we compete there in

the smaller categories, like junior varsity and freshmen. But we decided

to move up to the Cal Cup this year, which meant rowing against just

varsity crews. I thought it would be a fairly level playing field, even

though we have oarsmen for only two years. I thought we could compete,

but, to tell you the truth, I wasn’t sure we could.”

The victorious OCC boat, named for Rob Jordan, a former OCC rower

killed in the World Trade Center attacks, included Mike Krueger, Alan

Twig, Jesse Waldowski, Brian Scheele, Gints Salaks, Matt Hietbrink, Chris

Pope, Stuart Blair and coxswain Sierra Caldwell.

“That was big,” Grant said of the victory, the first in the newly

christened boat. “I’m as happy as can be.”

The Cal Cup, for which 18 schools compete, was the secondary prize of

the day. The Copley Cup, which goes to the annual winner of the regatta’s

invitational race, went to UC Berkeley. Washington, Yale, Stanford and

Oregon rounded out the top five in the Copley Cup.

OCC’s novice eight made the six-boat final in the 18-school event, then finished fourth in 6:20, behind Washington (5:59), Cal (6:03) and

Stanford (6:18).

OCC’s open eight was third in the consolation final.

The Pirates host their own regatta Saturday at 8 a.m. The event is

scheduled to include UC Irvine, Long Beach State and Chapman.