Oct. 13, 2009
This past weekend, Stanford Sailing competed in its first PCCSC intersectional, the Stoney Burke, hosted by UC Berkley at Treasure Island. With twenty-three teams competing, this was the team's first glimpse at the competition around the conference. The team faced a variety of conditions throughout the weekend - Saturday saw strong, steady winds from the West building to 15-20mph, while Sunday posed more of a challenge with a dying, puffy Westerly.
The big story for Stanford Sailing this weekend was the five walk-on crews who competed in a regatta for the very first time. Sophomore Margaret Hayden, and freshmen Katie Riklin, Iris Clayter, Alysha De Souza, and Liz Melton, who just started sailing with the team a week ago, showed great potential and perseverance in their first competition representing the Cardinal.
The coed team, which finished 7th overall, was led by Justin Doane '12 and Margaret Hayden '12 in B-division, who finished with only three finishes out of the top ten. Despite having to hold onto an OCS penalty, over the start line early, Doane and Hayden sailed very consistently to finish 6th in their division. In a tough A-division fleet, Peter Stemler '10 and Katie Riklin `13 finished in 9th.
The women's team, which finished 1st amongst the women's teams, finished 8th overall and beat many of the coed teams as well. Hannah Burroughs '11 and Megan Grove '10 showed why experience and discipline in college sailing can take you a long way. Struggling early on in the event, in the final 8 races, Burroughs and Grove finished out of the top six once, which led to an impressive 7th place finish in A-division. Freshmen Katie Lund and Iris Clayter gained valuable experience in the conference and sailed to a strong 8th place finish in B-division for the Cardinal women.
The JV-squad of Oliver Riihiluoma '12 and Alysha De Souza '13 in A-division, and Wade Hatton '13 and Liz Melton '13 in B-division showed the depth of the Cardinal program by winning the JV-division by over fifty points. In a total of 24 races, both teams won their divisions handily and only finished out of the top two twice.Both the coed and women's teams travel to the East coast next weekend to compete in major ICSA intersectionals. The coed team will travel to Annapolis to compete at the 4-division Navy Fall Intersectional, while the women travel to Yale.