Well, at least the Lakers and Cal State Fullerton's Titans won.
As for Newport Harbor High School, the Sailors' dreams of winning the national high school surfing crown were dashed in Sunday's semi-final round by South Bay regional champion Mira Costa High School, which went to win the title in Sunday evening's finals of the Red Bull Riders Cup National Championship at Upper Trestles.
Orange County regional champ Harbor High advanced to the Sunday rounds by beating Satellite High School, the Central Florida regional representative, in Saturday's quarterfinals. And the Sailors came up just short to Mira Costa, which won with 73 points to Harbor's 71.5 in the semis.
Like the Lakers' Game 2 victory in the NBA Finals, Mira Costa had to go into overtime in its championship-round against San Diego regional rep San Dieguito Academy before coming away with the 98-96 win.
While we inlanders dealt with June Gloom most of the weekend, the high school surfers enjoyed ideal weather and near-perfect waves all weekend, reports the Red Bull organizers.
“This was simply an amazing Championship, and exactly what the Red bull Riders Cup is all about,” said Brad Gerlach, National Surf League Founder. “In the Finals we had two well-matched teams and a format that really allows the kids to show off and highlight their skills. It had it all-drama, suspense, disappointment, exhilaration and a nail-biting finale. This is why we do it.”
While all Mira Costa surfers performed well, onlookers pointed to an 8.5 score from Dane Zaun with pushing the team over the top. He was crowned the MVP.
“This was definitely the best surfing event I've ever participated in,” said Zaun. “The waves were near perfect, and we worked really hard for this win, surfing two games today plus the overtime. This was a team effort, and I'm so proud we were all able to hold it together to snatch victory”
At least Harbor High is battle ready for next year.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.
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