March 29, 2004
Norfolk, VA - The Stanford Cardinal sailors competedagainst other top-ranked teams at the Szambecki Team Race hosted byOld Dominion University. Glimpses of the racing were featured onESPN's coverage of the Women's NCAA tournament (also hosted by ODUthis past weekend). The television coverage, shown on Sunday, wasactually of Saturday's racing, which was unfortunately plaugued bylight-air conditions, causing the races to move very slowly.
Between wind delays, the Stanford team went 2-1 on Saturday, beating2nd ranked St. Mary's of Maryland and King's Point, while earningtheir only loss against 8th ranked Hobart/Wm Smith. This left theCardinal 2nd overall in the regatta after day 1.
Sunday's wind of 10-20 knots made for great racing. In the conclusionof the preliminary round-robin, Stanford dominated 10th rankedCollege of Charleston, UC Santa Barbara and Texas A&M. A loss to13th ranked Old Dominion seeded Stanford 3rd in the final 6 sail-off.In the finals, another loss to ODU and a loss to St. Mary's left theStanford team in 4th overall.
Team Racing is the most tactical form of sailboat racing, where threeboats from one team use boathandling, speed and rules to colectivelyfinish better than three boats from another team. Sailing for theCardinal in this 3-on-3 racing format were skippers Jen Porter, PeterDeming, Brian Haines and Emery Wager. Crews were Taylor Clark, LizShearer, Anna Vu, Caroline Young and Becca Levin.
FINAL RESULTS:
1. Hobart/Wm Smith: 11-1
2. St. Mary's of MD: 8-4
3. Old Dominion University: 8-4
4. Stanford: 6-6
5. College of Charleston: 4-8
6. US MMA, King's Point: 3-9
7. UC Santa Barbara: 2-5
8. Texas A&M Galveston: 0-7