Forty teams and more than 350 collegiate, high school and middle school surfers are doing battle at Dana Point’s Salt Creek Beach this weekend and Monday in the NSSA National Interscholastic Championships.
Saturday, San Diego County’s Mira Costa College captured its second straight national collegiate title. Today, high school varsity, JV and middle school teams are attacking the waves in preliminary rounds. Monday will bring the finals.
Defending champions are San Clemente High School and Shorecliffs Middle School of San Clemente, both listed as the top seeds in their divisions. SCHS’ Breyden Taylor and Huntington Beach High’s Tony Bartovich are looking to repeat their 2011 titles in shortboarding and longboarding.
SEE A SLIDESHOW FROM SATURDAY HERE.
Orange County produced four finalists in Saturday’s collegiate competition.
•Taylor Pitz of Laguna Beach, 3rd in women’s surfing for UCLA
• Dennis White of San Clemente, 3rd in longboarding for Saddleback College.
•Marissa Shaw of San Clemente, 4th in women’s surfing for San Diego State.
•Kaleigh Gilchrist of Newport Beach, 5th in women’s surfing for USC.
Orange County had no finalists in men’s surfing. San Clemente’s Shaw Kobayashi and Doug van Mierlo just missed reaching the final.
Mira Costa’s Dayton Silva, Brent Reilly, Kelly Zaun and Derrick Disney swept the top four places in the men’s final with Sebastian Moreno of Florida Institute of Technology taking fifth and UC San Diego’s Shaun Burrell placing sixth.
In the women’s division, Amy Nicholl from the University of Central Florida captured her second national collegiate title. UCLA’s Chandler Parr was second.
In longboarding, Tony Silvagni from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington is national champ. Josh Gandulla from UC Santa Barbara was runner-up.
Contact the writer: fswegles@ocregister.com or 949-492-5127