Intercollegiate Sailing Association's National Championships 2012

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Eighteen Teams Qualify for College Sailing’s National Championship Finals

Annapolis, Md. (May 13, 2012) – Thirty-six college sailing teams descended on the U.S. Naval Academy this weekend for the Intercollegiate Sailing Association’s (ICSA) National Championship Semi-Finals with supporting sponsors U.S. Sailing and Marlow. The Semi-Finals were divided into two fleets, Eastern and Western each comprised of 18 teams from schools across the nation. The top nine schools in each fleet qualify to compete in the Gill/ICSA Coed Dinghy National Championship Finals June 6 – 8 in Austin, Texas.

Fourteen races were completed in both the Eastern and Western Semi-Finals on Windward/Leeward courses with the fleets rotating each day in 420s and FJs.

Sailors arrived to light winds on Saturday morning, which persisted throughout the day. Sailing was delayed until 10 a.m. in the hopes that more wind would fill in. The wind stayed light and shifty throughout the day averaging around 7 mph. Annapolis did not fail to deliver its classic motorboat chop, making the conditions that much more challenging for sailors.

Sunday brought better conditions for the sailors. The wind started from a northerly direction, but eventually shifted to the South-Southwest and built throughout the day to more than 12 mph by the afternoon.

“It was great sailing this weekend, choppy and tough competition,” says Mitch Brindley, president of the ICSA and head coach for Old Dominion University. The competition was certainly deep and teams were holding on to their spots and fighting to stay in the top nine in both fleets.

For the University of South Florida and Boston University, who won US Sailing’s GRIT award for being the final team in each group to qualify for the National Championship Finals, they had to fend off the teams just behind them who were fighting until the end for a qualifying spot.

For the teams at the top of their fleets, today was a good day and a pleasant surprise with better winds. “Today turned out to be windy with few shifts and nice waves,” says Mike Callahan, head coach for Georgetown University. Georgetown won the Eastern Semi-Final taking the lead in the regatta Sunday morning.

He says what worked in such a tough fleet was consistency. “The difference in who won races was who got off the starting line cleanly and was not called over early,” he says. Despite their positive performance this weekend, Georgetown is looking forward to getting in a lot of good practice before heading to the Finals. Callahan says the other teams are getting better and better. Georgetown sailors Chris Barnard ‘13 and Hilary Kenyon ‘13 with Leslie Cowen ‘13 sailed in A division and Evan Aras ‘12 and Katherine Canty 12 sailed B division, bringing home the win for the Hoyas.

The University of Miami won the Western Semi-Final, with sailors Nicholas Voss ‘12 and Nicole Popp ‘12 and Kara Voss ‘15 in A division and David Hernandez ‘12 and Chelsea Carlson ’13 in B division. Miami is a club team that started out four years ago not having a chance at qualifying for the Finals and this year they are true contenders, says Kay Kilpatrick, an advisor for the team.

She said today was more like Biscayne Bay, where Miami practices, but with chop thrown in. “The breeze came in and it was perfect this afternoon,” says Kilpatrick. The team is excited to be heading to Texas in just a few weeks.

Next up the University of Texas and Austin Yacht Club, June 6 – 8, 2012, will host the Gill/ICSA Coed National Championship Finals.

Congratulations to the qualifying teams:

Eastern Semi-Final
1. Georgetown University
2. Roger Williams University
3. Stanford University
4. College of Charleston
5. Old Dominion University
6. Hobart and William Smith Colleges
7. Brown University
8. Dartmouth College
9. Boston University

Western Semi-Final
1. University of Miami
2. Yale University
3. Harvard University
4. SUNY Maritime College
5. Boston College
6. University of Wisconsin
7. U.S. Naval Academy
8. Tufts University
9. University of South Florida
For additional regatta information and results visit the event website: http://2012semis.collegesailing.org/. Follow the action live on the ICSA Twitter feed: @collegesailing.

The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) is the governing authority for sailing competition at colleges and universities throughout the United States and in some parts of Canada. Visit www.collegesailing.org to learn more.

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2012 Spring College Sailing Nationals Set to Begin in Austin, TX

Austin, Texas (May 27, 2012) – The Intercollegiate Sailing Association’s (ICSA) three national championships, Sperry Top-Sider/ICSA Women’s National Semi-Final and Final Championship, ICSA/APS Team Race National Championship, and the ICSA/Gill Dinghy National Championship commence Wednesday, May 30 with the Women’s event, which will last for four days immediately followed by the Team Race Championship on June 3and the Dinghy Championship on June 6, each lasting for three days. All of the events will be sailed in Club Flying Juniors (CFJs). These exciting events are the highest caliber regattas in the collegiate sailing year and are the culmination of two seasons of intense competition.

The racing will take place in Austin, Texas on Lake Travis hosted by the University of Texas Sailing Team and the Austin Yacht. Lake Travis is technically a dammed river surrounded by a hilly and mountainous landscape. The two organizations hosted the National Championships last in 2005 where the competitors enjoyed shifty, but consistent wind speeds around 12-15 mph on clear water for nearly ten days straight. The conditions this year are expected to be similar; although a drought this year has dropped the water level quite a bit. Luckily the lake is deep and it will not affect the sailing. To learn more about which teams are competing and to follow the results and racing live visit the event website: http://2012nationals.collegesailing.org/.

Watch live media coverage of the regattas by clicking on the Live Media link at 2012nationals.collegesailing.org. The University of Texas will provide daily text and photo updates for each of the regattas. On May 31-June 5, Chris Love Productions will also provide video highlights, with live streaming video coverage of the final days of the ICSA/APS Team Race Championship June 4-5. Video coverage presented by Maclaren.

The ICSA/Sperry Top-Sider Women’s Semi-Final Championship begins Wednesday, May 30with an 8 a.m. report time and first race warning set for 10 a.m. The event begins with a single round robin First Round of qualifying races for the 18 women’s teams who have made it to a semifinal round, but not yet made it to the final competition round. The First Round group will race until they complete at least the required number of races (16) for nine teams to join the nine previously qualified Finals teams to compete for the Gerald C. Miller Memorial Trophy. Once the 18 final teams have been determined the Finals racing will commence in a single round robin and continue until June 2.

For the nine women’s teams that did not make it to the Final round a Women’s Clinic will be run simultaneously for them to participate in.

The ICSA/Sperry Top-Sider Women’s Championship will culminate in an awards banquet at 6:30 p.m. on June 2 with dinner and the announcement of the winners of the event. In addition to the racing awards, the announcement of the ICSA Women’s All-America Team will be made as well as the Quantum Women’s Sailor of the Year.

Racing will begin on June 3for the ICSA/APS Team Race National Championship with an 8 a.m. report time for the teams. The 14 teams have been divided into two groups of seven and each group will complete a single round robin to determine a gold fleet of the top eight teams. Once the top eight teams have been determined that gold fleet will complete a double round robin to determine the top final four teams while a single consolation round robin will be held for the six remaining teams who were not in the gold fleet. The four top teams will compete for the Walter C. Wood Memorial Trophy. The racing will be completed on Tuesday, June 5 followed by an awards banquet at 7 p.m. to award the winners and enjoy dinner.

The ICSA/Gill Dinghy National Championship will commence on June 6 at 8 a.m. for 18 qualified collegiate coed teams. It will be a single round robin of racing scheduled to continue through June 8. The teams will be competing for the Henry A. Morse Memorial Trophy and the winners will be awarded at a banquet at 7 p.m. Other awards presented at this banquet will include the ICSA All-America Teams, the Fowle Trophy for the overall top team in the country, The Everett B. Morris trophy for the College Sailor of the Year, ICSA Sportsmanship Award, and the ICSA Student Leadership Award.

The field has been set and the nearly 30 schools scheduled to compete in the events have been practicing hard in the last week in preparation for the biggest regatta of their season, the National Championships. The ten days will cover a variety of different weather conditions and racing run and judged by premiere sailors in the sport. This is sure to be a series of challenging, but fun and exciting sailing.

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The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) is the governing authority for sailing competition at colleges and universities throughout the United States and in some parts of Canada. Visit www.collegesailing.org to learn more. The ICSA National Championships are sponsored by Sperry Top-Sider (www.sperrytopsider.com), Annapolis Performance Sailing (www.apsltd.com), Gill North America (www.gillna.com), and US SAILING (home.ussailing.org).

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SPERRY TOP-SIDER/ICSA WOMEN’S SEMI-FINAL CHAMPIONSHIP DAY ONE

Austin, Texas (May 30, 2012) – The 2012 Intercollegiate Sailing Association’s series of National Championships began today on Lake Travis in Austin, Texas with the Sperry Top-Sider /ICSA Women’s Semi-Final Championship. The Semi-Finals are the precursor to the Women’s National Championship slated to begin Thursday, May 31 at 1 p.m. CDT provided that all qualifying races are completed. The events are co-hosted by the University of Texas Sailing Team and the Austin Yacht Club.

Nine teams have already qualified for the National Championship: Georgetown University, University of Michigan, Stanford University, University of Texas, University of South Florida, U.S. Naval Academy, Boston College, Yale University and Western Washington University. Nine more teams will qualify over the next two days from the 18 currently racing in the Semi-Finals.

Teams arrived to cloudy skies, 77 degrees and a light rain this morning at Austin Yacht Club. Winds were from the south-southeast at about nine knots. As the day progressed the skies cleared to reveal sunshine on and off and temperatures soared to the high 80s and low 90s with south-southeast winds staying around 10 knots.

Eager sailors in A-division crossed the starting line before the gun in the first race, causing the race committee to hail a general recall. The second start was a success and racing was underway around 10:30 a.m. Teams are sailing in Club FJ’s on a windward/leeward courseb4 laps around. A-division completed eight races today while B-division completed six.

There were a couple more general recalls in the beginning of the day as it was a priority to sail to the right side of the course where the wind and shifts were better making a good start at the pin difficult.

“The conditions today were very nice and the breeze stayed pretty steady, 11 to 12 knots with not too much chop,” Mike O’Connor, head coach of Harvard University says. O’Connor says the shifts were pretty visible on the course and nothing like the dramatic shifts they are used to seeing where they sail on the Charles River. Sailing for Harvard was Emily Lambert ’12 and Isabel Ruane ’14 in A-division and Morgan Russom ’14 and Alexandra Jumper ’12 in B-division.

Harvard is happy to be sitting in fourth place after the first day of racing, a qualifying position, but O’Connor says they hope to move up in the standings tomorrow. After a couple of difficult starts and a few missteps on the course in the middle of the day, the Harvard sailors were able to shake it off and come back with better finishes, O’Connor says. They learned from their mistakes and are ready to come back stronger tomorrow.

The scores are close with the top two teams, the College of Charleston and Connecticut College, only one point apart, 70 and 71 points respectively. The University of Rhode Island and Harvard are tied with 89 points—however, Harvard loses the tiebreaker. Dartmouth College is only two points behind Rhode Island and Harvard with 91 points in fifth place.

Semi-Finals racing will continue tomorrow morning starting at 9 a.m. Teams already qualified for the Nationals will arrive mid-morning to check in and hopefully fit in some practice in the boats before their start. When 16 races between A and B-division are completed, the National Championships are scheduled to begin. For more results and information about the regattas visit the event website: 2012nationals.collegesailing.org

Top Nine Teams, Day 1:
1. College of Charleston
2. Connecticut College
3. University of Rhode Island
4. Harvard University
5. Dartmouth College
6. Brown University
7. University of Hawaii
8. St. Mary’s College of Maryland
9. Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Watch live media coverage of the final day of the Sperry Top-Sider/ICSA Women's Semifinal on May 31 by clicking on the Live Media link at 2012nationals.collegesailing.org. The University of Texas will provide daily text and photo updates for each of the regattas and Chris Love Productions will provide video highlights, presented by Maclaren.

*CORRECTION: There will not be a Women’s Clinic for the teams that do not qualify for the Sperry-Topsider/ICSA Women’s National Championship as stated in the previous release.

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SPERRY TOP-SIDER/ICSA WOMEN’S SEMI-FINALS AND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS, DAY TWO

Austin, Texas (May 31, 2012) – Racing continued at the Austin Yacht Club venue on Lake Travis today wrapping up the Sperry Top-Sider ICSA Women’s Semi-Final Championships and beginning the Sperry Top-Sider/ICSA Women’s National Championships. The teams, which represent the seven collegiate sailing districts in the nation, are competing for the Gerald C. Miller Trophy, named for the coach in the late 1960s at Boston University, who was one of the originators of the first women’s nationals.

The sailors arrived to temperatures in the 80s, partly cloudy skies and a light 5-knot breeze from an easterly direction. The first race of the day was the seventh race in B-division in the Semi-Finals series around 9:30 a.m. CDT.

Four races were completed this morning in the Semi-Finals series, one in A-division and three in B-division. The first race started in light breeze and was won by the URI Sailing Team, who are defending champions of the Gerald C. Miller Trophy. They were followed by Connecticut College Sailing and Washington College Sailing. In the second race, 8B, the boat side of the line was heavily favored and there were four general recalls before getting underway.

When A-division took to the water the breeze built to 8-10 knots with 12-knot gusts. More shifts were seen across the course making it important for the sailors to get into the correct groove and hit the shifts accordingly. As a storm cell approached for the last two races of the Semis series the wind continued to build to a steady 15 knots and then up to 25-30 knots from the northeast. About a dozen capsizes littered the fleet as everyone worked hard to finish the last race.

The nine teams that qualified from the Semi-Finals series, listed in order, include: Connecticut College, College of Charleston, Brown University, University of Rhode Island, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, University of Hawaii, St. Mary’s College of Maryland and Eckerd College. There was a 65-point spread between first and ninth place. St. Mary’s and Eckerd, the final teams to qualify, tied for eighth place.

The National Championships got underway just after 2 p.m. The storm had passed and racing began under sunny skies in 5-7 knots of wind from the east-southeast. Over the next two sets of races the wind began to die to eventually nothing after the first race in B-division. The sailors were sent in to cool down from the hot Texas sun and wait for more wind to fill in.

The wind came in from the north at about 5-7 knots around 5 p.m. The conditions continued to be shifty with the wind cycling up and down between 5 and 10 knots. At times the pin end was heavily favored due to left shifts, which made it important for the sailors to find a hole at that end to be in the top of the fleet off of the line.

“Some of the shifts that came down the course were big and lasted almost the entire windward leg,” Greg Wilkinson, head coach of Boston College says. He says his team did their best to sail the shifts and stay in velocity. The girls also managed to get decent starts and put themselves in the front of the group off the line, he says. Sailing for Boston College is Annie Haeger ’12 and Laura McKenna ’13 in A-division and Briana Provancha ’12 and Beth Barnard ’15 in B-division.

Four races were completed in A-division and two races were completed in B-division today in the final series for the Sperry Top-Sider/ICSA Women’s National Championship. Racing will continue at 9 a.m. tomorrow and conditions are predicted to be sunny in the high 80s with winds around 7 knots. Visit the event website for more information and compete results from each day’s racing, 2012nationals.collegesailing.org. There are two more days of competition scheduled for the women’s regatta.

Top Nine Teams:
1. Boston College
2. Harvard University
3. University of South Florida
4. Connecticut College
5. Georgetown University
6. Yale University
7. University of Rhode Island
8. College of Charleston
9. Stanford University

Watch live media coverage of the final day of the Sperry Top-Sider/ICSA Women's Semifinal on May 31 by clicking on the Live Media link at 2012nationals.collegesailing.org. The University of Texas will provide daily text and photo updates for each of the regattas and Chris Love Productions will provide video highlights, presented by Maclaren.

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BOSTON COLLEGE WINS THE SPERRY TOP-SIDER/ICSA WOMEN’S NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Austin, Texas (June 2, 2012) – Today was the last day of racing for the Sperry Top-Sider/ICSA Women’s National Championship on Lake Travis in Austin, Texas, co-hosted by the University of Texas Sailing Team and the Austin Yacht Club. Eighteen women’s collegiate teams raced for the Gerald C. Miller Trophy and Boston College came away with the victory.

The competitors arrived to nice breeze and partly cloudy skies, a pleasant change from the last three days of racing where wind was a scarcity at times. Winds were coming from the south-southeast at around 12-14 knots at the start of the day and as racing got underway around 9 a.m. CDT, the winds fluctuated between 8-12 knots.

The race committee was able to run seven races today in both A and B-divisions completing the championship with 13 races total in A and B over the three days of the regatta.

While there was more wind today, gusts up to 14-16 knots from a southeasterly direction, the same shifts—long persistent shifts—like the previous days, moved across the course. The shifts could last for a whole upwind or downwind leg and if the sailors were not in phase with them they could gain or lose places quickly depending on which side of the course they were on.

For Boston College, approaching the conditions today, Greg Wilkinson says, “It was all a matter of being the capable team that we are.” The head coach says the racing was extremely close today. They started the day just one point ahead of Georgetown University and going into the last race of the day they held their first place position, but were only one point ahead of the University of Rhode Island, the defending champions. Closely behind Boston and Rhode Island were Yale University and Georgetown—all four teams were within ten points of each other.

“Staying near Rhode Island was a priority,” Wilkinson says. Although the racing was close all day he says the team did not really focus on it until the last race. They talked about being ready with aggressive starts, he says, but they felt they had a speed advantage over Rhode Island and thought they would win a tie-breaker with Yale, therefore they felt in a good position.

Winning the Women’s Championship title and the Gerald C. Miller Trophy for Boston College was Anne Haeger ’12, Laura McKenna ’13 and Kelly Roy ’13 in A-division and Briana Provancha ’12 and Beth Barnard ’15 in B-division.

The Yale team also did not focus on the points between the teams until the last race of the day, says Bill Healy, Yale’s assistant coach. He says they thought what they needed to win the regatta was to win the last race and that is what they did, “Who ever made the least mistakes in the end would stay at the top,” he says. Boston College made a good comeback in that last race taking fifth, just enough to give them a four point lead on Yale overall.

Yale took second place winning the New England Women’s Trophy thanks to sailors Marlena Fauer ’14 and Eugenia Custo Greig ’14 in A-division and Morgan Kiss ‘15 with Urska Kosir ’15 and Emily Billing ’13 with Amanda Salvesen ’14 in B-division.

In third, four points behind Yale, winning the Ann Campbell Trophy, was the University of Rhode Island Amy Hawkins ’12 and Kaitlyn Norton ’15 in A-division and Chanel Miller ’14 and Margaret Craig ’13 in B-division.

The two trophies for the winners of each division have been awarded since 1974. Sydney Bolger ’12 and Rebecca Evans ’12 won the Madeleine Trophy, awarded to the low-point A- division team and Morgan Kiss ’15 with Urska Kosir ’15 and Emily Billing ’13 with Amanda Salvesen ’14 won the Judy Lawson Trophy, awarded to the low-point B-division team.

Visit the event website for full results and regatta information: http://2012nationals.collegesailing.org/

Final Overall Results
1. Boston College, 142
2. Yale University, 146
3. University of Rhode Island, 150
4. Georgetown University, 156
5. Connecticut College, 187
6. College of Charleston, 210*
7. U.S. Naval Academy, 210*
8. Harvard University, 218
9. Brown University, 236
10. University of South Florida, 242
11. Eckerd College, 248
12. Dartmouth College, 249
13. Stanford University, 277
14. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 278
15. University of Hawaii, 302
16. University of Michigan, 373
17. University of Texas, 409
18. Western Washington University, 413
*Head-to-head tiebreaker

Racing will continue tomorrow at the Austin Yacht club with the ICSA/APS Team Racing National Championship lasting three days. Fourteen teams will report at 8 a.m. and racing will begin around 10 a.m. Live coverage will continue tomorrow the University of Texas will provide daily text and photo updates and Chris Love Productions will provide video highlights of the opening day of racing, with live streaming video coverage of the final two days, June 4-5. Video coverage presented by Maclaren.