2008 Woodie Awards
Surf team has best season yet
Solid performances help surf team capture second place in conference rankings
Pride Contributor, Amber Puah
Issue date: 2/12/08 Section: Sports
This weekend, the regular season for the National Scholastic Surfing Association College Team Season, concluded at Huntington Beach's 9th Street beach. CSUSM posted a 3rd place finish wrapping up a record best season. With a 2nd place overall finish in the conference ratings, participants from CSUSM posted two 2nd place finishes, one 1st, and one third. Prior to this season, CSUSM's best ever single event finish was a 4th. This marks a major break through in the team's 8 year history, and marks its arrival as a serious competitive threat to the larger, beach located schools such as UCSB and UCSD. Thanks to the financial support of Hansen's Boardroom, CSUSM will enter the state championships as the number two seed.
UCSB was dominant all season, only faltering with a 3rd place at home, at C Street in Ventura. Otherwise, UCSB posted 1st places. (Two of their three wins came with comfortable margins,) But, CSUSM was nipping at UCSB's heals at the first event of season at La Jolla Blacks Beach, taking second by only a 1/2 of a point. Beside UCSB, the only other team to beat CSUSM this season was Mira Costa College. Mira Costa came on strong down the stretch when the twins, Julian and Alex Ganguli, returned to school and collegiate competition in the spring semester. In the final event of the season, Alex led Mira Costa Red to a second place.
The final weekend of competition was both interesting and exciting for CSUSM. Team anchor Scott McBride exited early, as did Ventura event winner Garrett James.
Season standout Chris Smith also didn't have his best event, and Aaron Coyle was unable to compete. This put the final outcome in the hands of Timmy Long and Paul Brandlin (freshman), Sean Hastings (senior), and the ladies Erin Lewis and Lauren Nutter. Pressure seemed no problem for these five as they maintained the determination to keep CSUSM on the podium for the 4th consecutive event.
Long looked snappy and vertical in the beach break conditions. Long had a best ever performance in the shortboard men's division, advancing through four rounds of competition to earn 9th place. Brandlin hada sluggish start in round one, but stepped it up after that. He won all his remaining heats until just missing advancement into the shortboard men's final earning 7th place.
UCSB was dominant all season, only faltering with a 3rd place at home, at C Street in Ventura. Otherwise, UCSB posted 1st places. (Two of their three wins came with comfortable margins,) But, CSUSM was nipping at UCSB's heals at the first event of season at La Jolla Blacks Beach, taking second by only a 1/2 of a point. Beside UCSB, the only other team to beat CSUSM this season was Mira Costa College. Mira Costa came on strong down the stretch when the twins, Julian and Alex Ganguli, returned to school and collegiate competition in the spring semester. In the final event of the season, Alex led Mira Costa Red to a second place.
The final weekend of competition was both interesting and exciting for CSUSM. Team anchor Scott McBride exited early, as did Ventura event winner Garrett James.
Season standout Chris Smith also didn't have his best event, and Aaron Coyle was unable to compete. This put the final outcome in the hands of Timmy Long and Paul Brandlin (freshman), Sean Hastings (senior), and the ladies Erin Lewis and Lauren Nutter. Pressure seemed no problem for these five as they maintained the determination to keep CSUSM on the podium for the 4th consecutive event.
Long looked snappy and vertical in the beach break conditions. Long had a best ever performance in the shortboard men's division, advancing through four rounds of competition to earn 9th place. Brandlin hada sluggish start in round one, but stepped it up after that. He won all his remaining heats until just missing advancement into the shortboard men's final earning 7th place.
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