Warrior Spotlight - Surf (Blaze Roche)
Westcliff Surf in their official 1st season as a sport here at Westcliff University. They are already make big waves across the surf scene on the west coast. Coach Rouse along with a talented group of surfers have been competing at the highest level. A few surfers that have been making Westcliff's name known across the state are Jack Hopkins, Ninon Mattei, Bryce Mattox and Blaze Roche. As a group the rest of the Surfers at Westcliff (Robert Crist, Cole Futak, Sierra Lim, Ian Livesay and Jake Shiroke) in every competition this season so far have made it to the next round and even to the next rounds the following day. We have had some high finishes with Mattox and Mattei finishing as high as 11th out of 100+ surfers.
By: SID Chase Dodge
Westcliff Surf in their official 1st season as a sport here at Westcliff University. They are already make big waves across the surf scene on the west coast. Coach Rouse along with a talented group of surfers have been competing at the highest level. A few surfers that have been making Westcliff's name known across the state are Jack Hopkins, Ninon Mattei, Bryce Mattox and Blaze Roche. As a group the rest of the Surfers at Westcliff (Robert Crist, Cole Futak, Sierra Lim, Ian Livesay and Jake Shiroke) in every competition this season so far have made it to the next round and even to the next rounds the following day. We have had some high finishes with Mattox and Mattei finishing as high as 11th out of 100+ surfers. Mattei also being the 1st warrior to make it to the finals 6th overall out of 48 surfers at Ventura and Huntington Beach.
The most impressive display of skill happened just this past weekend. Blaze Roche went from the opening round to the 2nd, 3rd, Quarterfinals, Semifinals and finally to the Final round. This was where Roche earned a Westcliff Surf finish of 4th place out of 160 surfers. This was the highest finish of any Warrior. Roche was also the first male surfer to make it to the final round along with being the only freshman surfer left in the competition. Roche earned top 5 finish in the Men's Shortboard.