April 29, 2006
Redwood City, Calif., - The Stanford Sailors broke the 5-year streak of 3rd place finishes in the annual Pacific Coast College Sailing Conference Team Race Championships with Friday's victory in this year's event. The team finished first with a record of 10 wins and 2 losses.
Assistant coach John Pearce explained, "we started off with some strong wins early in the day, and that really sent a message to the other teams that we would be hard to beat." Pearce, who coached Hobart/William Smith to win the Collegiate National Championship in Team Racing last year, continued, "all three of our boats are very fast and smart, so our opponents had a really hard time finding any weaknesses to attack."
In fact, the Cardinal did not suffer a loss until the last round of the 3-round series. The Card lost to Hawaii and then USC. "Hawaii got ahead of us in a left wind shift," explained Pearce, "and USC came on super aggressive, they needed a win to take 2nd place; both are lessons we're happy to learn today and not at the Nationals."
Team racing is a format that pits 3 boats from one team against 3 boats from another team. The teams must use rules, strategy and boathandling to finish with a better combination than the other team's boats. Sailing for Stanford; skipper Brian Haines with crew Becca Levin, Emery Wager and crew Taylor Grimes and Eddie Conrad with crew Anna Vu.
Saturday and Sunday, the team heads to Cal's home water of Treasure Island to battle for the top two spots at the Pac Coast Fleet Race Champs. "After dominating the Women's PCC's, and taking the Team Race PCC's, we're looking for the third jewel in the triple crown," commented Head Coach Jay Kehoe.Finishing top two at this weekend's regatta will insure the team a 2-week stay in Charleston, South Carolina for the three Dinghy National Championships (May 23-June 2).
PCCSC Team Race Champs
1. Stanford 10-2 (4-0, 4-0, 2-2)
2. USC 8-4 (2-2, 2-2, 4-0)
3. UC Irvine 7-5 (3-1, 3-1, 1-3)
4. U Hawaii 4-8 (1-3, 1-3, 2-2)
5. UC Santa Barbara 0-12 (0-4, 0-4, 0-4)