April 22, 2002
LONG BEACH, Calif. - The Cardinal Women's Sailing Team crushed the competition this weekend, finishing first in the PCC's and securing a berth to the 2002 North American Championships to be held in Honolulu, Hawaii on May 28-30.
"I'm so proud of the women for knocking off defending North American Champions Hawaii," said coach Jay Kehoe, "All their time on the water has paid off, they are living up to Stanford 's winning tradition."
The two-day event was sailed in a range of conditions. Heavy wind on Saturday meant A Division skipper Jen Porter '04 took the water with crew Sarah Zuckerman '03, and B Division skipper Ashley Frush '04 took the water with Kara Sweeney '03. The combinations proved magic as the Stanford women dominated the day in both divisions. The Cardinal's top competition, and defending North American Champs, Hawaii were deep after Saturday, sitting precariously in fifth place (only the top two will represent the Pacific Coast at the NA's on Hawaii's home water).
Sunday dawned with lighter air, so skipper crew combinations switched to the lighter teams of Porter/Jess Gray '04 and Frush/Jenais Zarlin '04. The transition was seamless and the Cardinal continued to dominate. As the wind picked up in the last two sets of races, Zukerman and then Liz Shearer '04 crewed for Porter, while Sweeney jumped back in with Frush. Hawaii staged a comeback, and successfully climbed out of fifth and into second. Their battle with UC Irvine and UCSB took the focus off the Stanford team.
Frush proved herself as the B Division to beat, with a 16 point cushion between her and 2nd place Hawaii's B Division. In A Division, Porter lost first to USC's Katie Clausen by only 2 points. Overall, the Cardinal enjoyed an amazing 27 point lead over second place Hawaii. This performance makes them the team to watch going into the Women's NA's, where the top competition will come from Yale, Brown, Hobart/Wm Smith, St. Mary's of Maryland, Charleston and Hawaii.
The next showdown is for the coed's - They will battle against the top PCC teams for a spot in both the Team Racing and Fleet Racing North Americans next weekend at Hawaii. Like the Women's elims, only the top two teams in each discipline will earn berths to the North Americans (June 1-7).
A division - 14 Races B division - 14 Races A B TOT
1. Stanford 452368 2. Hawaii 563995 3. UC Irvine6243105 4. UC Santa Barbara5763120 5. USC4377120 6. California5768125 7. Orange Coast 7279151