REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Stanford claimed its sixth consecutive PCCSC Coed Sailing Championship today, blowing away the 15-team field in a landslide victory.
“It didn’t go perfectly but it was pretty close to it,” said head coach John Vandemoer. After a performance to remember yesterday, in which the Cardinal won all 13 races it sailed, Stanford finished today with 43 points from 28 races, 39 points ahead of second-place UC Santa Barbara.
“We were fortunate to have an incredible performance yesterday and were able to play some younger players today,” added the seventh-year coach. “We were able to keep pace right where we left off with the seniors.”
With the help of sophomore crew Nikki Obel, seniors Kieran Chung, Haley Kirk, and Hans Henken set the tone on Friday with a remarkable day of perfect sailing.
“They’re a phenomenal class,” said sophomore skipper Reinier Eenkema van Dijk. “We’d like to use their last couple of months here to try and learn as much as we can from them.”
“The performance yesterday was hard to follow but we’ve definitely learned from them in practice,” added freshman crew Elena Vandenberg, who featured for Stanford’s B-squad today.
Taking over for Chung as skipper of the Cardinal A-team was junior Antoine Screve. Screve, with a crew of sophomores John Cannistraro and Daniel Ron, piloted the Cardinal to seven top-2 finishes and three wins on Saturday in eight races. The Cardinal A-unit finished 14 contests over two days with 23 points.
Junior skipper Axel Sly and Vandenberg took the reigns from Henken and Obel for races eight through 11 in the B-division. The pair notched two wins in four races.
Putting the finishing touches on the B-unit for Stanford were Eenkema van Dijk and Mary Vangelos, who won two of their three races. Cardinal B finished with 20 total points.
With two PCCSC championship trophies in the bag already, Stanford have the unique opportunity on Sunday to claim all six conference championships for the third season in a row. Teams will hit the water at 10:30 a.m. with races taking place at the Stanford Rowing & Sailing Center.