April 29, 2013
STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford's prolific spring continued this past weekend as the Cardinal won the Intercollegiate Sailing Association's Coed National Championship semifinals at the Hampton Yacht Club. It was the first-ever semifinal victory for the program.
The Cardinal finished with 118 points, ahead of host co-host Old Dominion (134) and Roger Williams (145).
"This was a big win for us," Stanford head coach John Vandemoer said. "We were third last year and have been so close for a while. The win is proof that we can put together a victory under presser. We will carry lots of positive momentum into the finals."
The Cardinal was second in both the A-Division (62) and B-Division (56).
Kevin Laube, Hans Henken, Kelly Ortel, Rebecca King and Yuri Namikawa competed in the A-Division, finishing behind only Roger Williams. Oliver Toole, Mateo Vargas, Haley Kirk and Tally Buckstaff led the B-Division unit to finish second behind Old Dominion.
The regatta featured 17 teams, with Stanford being the only PCCSC program to advance to coed nationals.
The semifinals were divided into Eastern and Western fleets. There were 17 teams in the Eastern fleet and 18 in the Western fleet representing schools from across the nation. The top nine schools in each fleet qualified to compete in the Gill/ICSA Coed Dinghy National Championship Finals.
Stanford will be one of nine teams from the Eastern fleet advancing to the ICSA Coed Nationals from May 25-27. The team also hopes to stay hot at the upcoming ICSA Women's Nationals from May 21-24.
This was the first time that Hampton hosted such a large college sailing event.
"Hampton was very welcoming, and both Hampton and Old Dominion did a great job running the regatta," Vandemoer said.
-- #goStanford --