FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 28, 2014 Contact: Jen Vandemoer Mitchell | Toile à Voile for ICSA | [email protected] | 763-234-8286 m. Photo credit: Rich Knoles
SPERRY TOP-SIDER WOMEN’S SEMI-FINAL CHAMPIONSHIP, DAY TWO Annapolis, Md. (May 28, 2014) – Racing continued today on the Severn River at the U.S. Naval Academy in the second day of the Sperry Top-Sider Women’s Semi-Finals. Twenty-eight collegiate sailing teams from across the nation qualified to compete in these semi-finals to determine the top 18 teams who will advance to the finals, which begin tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. The 28 teams are divided into two fleets of 14 teams, Western and Eastern Semi-Final groups, the top nine from each fleet will make up the 18 teams who compete in the final. Today the fleets swapped the type of boats that they were sailing from yesterday, so the Western fleet sailed in Z420s and the Eastern fleet sailed in FJs. The courses were again windward leeward with four legs. The conditions in the morning were light winds around six miles per hour from a north northwesterly direction and temperatures in the high 70s with pretty high humidity. As the day progressed there was some cloud cover and a brief light rain. The temperature hovered around 80 degrees. The wind continued to come from a northwesterly direction averaging about five miles per hour, until the end of the day when the wind got very light and variable and shifted to a southeasterly direction. The deadline for racing today was 5 p.m. and the light winds at the end of the day made it difficult to squeeze in the racing before the deadline. The Western Semi-Final completed five races today in both A and B-divisions for a total of 11 races for the event. The Eastern Semi-Final had two more races to sail in B-division this morning, so they completed six races today and four races in A-division for a total of 10 races for the event. The University of Rhode Island (URI) was leading the Eastern fleet after yesterday’s racing, but today they fell to second place on a head-to-head tiebreaker with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). “It was exciting until the last B-division race,” Matt Cohen, co-head coach of MIT says. “Our B-division was a clutch pairing for the whole event, but especially today,” he says. “They knew that they had to finish with at least one boat between them and URI in the last race,” Cohen explains. The girls accomplished this on the last quarter of the run when Eckerd College finished behind MIT and in front of URI in the race. Cohen attributes this success to the confidence that their B-division sailors have gained over the course of this year, Hanna Vincent ’14 and Lisa Sukharev-Chuyan '16. Also sailing well for MIT in A-division was Chloe Lepert '15, Rosalind Lesh '16, Iris Xu ’14 and Elizabeth Zhang ’16. “Doing well yesterday and today has given us the confidence to move into the finals knowing that we can play with top competition,” says Cohen. URI finished behind MIT on a tiebreaker and 16 points behind them in third is Boston College, who beat Old Dominion University in a head-to-head tiebreaker. Yale University was leading the Western fleet after yesterday’s racing and they were able to hold on to their lead today. “Our goal was to sail as well as we could in this event and move into the finals,” Bill Healy, assistant coach of Yale University says. “We really wanted to work on getting to know the Z420s and I feel that we did that,” he says. “We learned a lot in this event and in the finals we will sail smarter beats and not be too risky when the conditions are light and variable, as they have been,” says Healy. Dartmouth College finished 23 points behind Yale with 92 points and ten points behind them is the U.S. Coast Guard Academy with 102 points. The scoreboard is wiped clean for the finals tomorrow, so teams will start fresh in the new event. The Sperry Top-Sider Women’s National Championship finals racing will begin tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. The top 18 teams will be competing for the Gerald C. Miller Trophy over the next two days. After racing today a dinner was held at the Naval Academy for the competitors and awards for the first two days of racing were presented including the US Sailing Grit Award for the two last teams to qualify for the finals in ninth place, Hobart and William Smith Colleges and the University of Wisconsin. The Graham Hall award for Outstanding Service by a College Sailing Professional was also presented to Scott Ikle, head coach of the Hobart and William Smith sailing teams. Ikle has been involved with college sailing since the 1980s as both a competitor and coach. He has served as a director for the Mid-Atlantic conference for 15 years and has worked to ensure fair sailing, develop great talent for the conference and also help make the profession of a college sailing coach better. Final Nine Teams Eastern Semi-Final: 1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 90* 2. University of Rhode Island, 90* 3. Boston College, 106* 4. Old Dominion University, 106* 5. Stanford University, 108 6. Brown University, 121 7. Georgetown University, 125 8. Eckerd College, 128 9. Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 137 *Head-to-head tiebreaker Final Nine Teams Western Semi-Final: 1. Yale University, 69 2. Dartmouth College, 92 3. U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 102 4. College of Charleston, 110 5. U.S. Naval Academy, 132 6. University of Hawaii, 152 7. Bowdoin College, 159 8. University of South Florida, 163 9. University of Wisconsin, 167 Video footage, sponsored by LaserPerformance, will be available during the Women’s finals with highlights and updates. Click on “Live Coverage” on the event website for these up-to-date racing details. Social media coverage will still be provided on collegesailing.org. To learn more about the teams competing in the events and to follow the racing and results visit the event website: http://2014nationals.collegesailing.org/. *CORRECTION: In yesterday’s release of Women’s Semi-Finals the list of top nine teams in the Western Semi-Final group was incorrect. Brown University was listed in place of Bowdoin College in eighth place. The correct results after yesterday’s racing for the Western group are below. Top Nine Teams Western Semi-Final, Day 1: 1. Yale University, 41 2. U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 55 3. Dartmouth College, 59 4. College of Charleston, 61 5. U.S. Naval Academy, 77 6. University of Hawaii, 78 7. Fordham University, 81* 8. Bowdoin College, 81* 9. Cornell University, 86 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 sponsors and partners are: LaserPerformance ( www.laserperformance.com), title sponsor of LaserPerformance Men’s and Women’s Singlehanded National Championships and Official Boat Supplier of the ICSA Spring National Championships. Sperry Top-Sider ( www.sperrytopsider.com), title sponsor of the Sperry Top-Sider / ICSA Women’s National Championship; Gill North America (www.gillna.com), title sponsor of the Gill / ICSA National Championship; Quantum Sail Design Group (www.quantumsails.com/), official sponsor of the “Quantum Women’s College Sailor of the Year”; Annapolis Performance Sailing (www.apsltd.com), title Sponsor of the APS / ICSA Team Race National Championship; Marlow Ropes ( www.marlowropes.com/), presenting sponsor of the “Marlow Ropes College Sailor of the Year Award” and Official Rope of College Sailing; US Sailing ( home.ussailing.org), supporting sponsor of the ICSA National Championships. WD2_richknolesdown2.jpg<https://docs.google.com/a/collegesailing.org/file/d/0B9gT73D-LK0hT2dERG5abjF4eWM/edit?usp=drive_web> WD2_richknolesYale.jpg<https://docs.google.com/a/collegesailing.org/file/d/0B9gT73D-LK0hYjRGMmZvZnd1NVU/edit?usp=drive_web> WD2_richknolesdown.jpg<https://docs.google.com/a/collegesailing.org/file/d/0B9gT73D-LK0hUkltazZLN2h5ZE0/edit?usp=drive_web> WD2_richknolesMIT.jpg<https://docs.google.com/a/collegesailing.org/file/d/0B9gT73D-LK0hZzg5TW1VT0NSTFE/edit?usp=drive_web> -- Jennifer V. Mitchell | [email protected]
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