NEWPORT, R.I. - Stanford sailed to a ninth-place finish today at the Sperry Women’s Nationals, the first of three events at the ICSA Sailing National Championships.
The young Cardinal was resilient all week en route to an improvement from last year’s 12th place finish, something seventh-year head coach John Vandemoer is pleased with.
“I am really proud of this women’s team for working hard all year and proving they are a top 10 team,” said Vandemoer. “We are a very young team and this experience gives us focus looking forward to next year.”
Sophomore Lily Katz skippered Stanford in the A-division, with crews Kennedy Placek, Haley Fox, and Noelle Herring each contributing. With a 162-point total, the Cardinal finished eighth in the A-division. Katz, Stanford’s first-choice women’s skipper, was on the water more than any other Cardinal sailor this week.
“We didn’t do as well as we wanted to at nationals, but we did really well in the semifinals which is promising,” said Katz, a sophomore from Brooklyn, New York. “I think we all had some really great races, we just made a lot of mistakes.”
In the B-division, sophomore Maeve White and freshman Julia Lambert shared skipper duties to finish with 172 points, good for 10th place in the fleet. Freshman Grace Lucas and senior Alex Archer both made their ICSA National Championship debuts as B-division crews. For Archer, an engineering major from Newport Beach, California, it was a particularly memorable experience.
“If someone told me a year ago that I would be finishing my senior year on a different team at another nationals, I would have never believed them,” said Archer, who turned in her gymnastics leotard for a life-preserver prior to her senior year. “Looking at where I am today, I couldn’t be happier with my decision.”
Next up is the Laserperformance Team Race Championship, where the No. 3 Cardinal will look to continue its fine form.
Stanford has logged several noteworthy team racing performances this season, including a victory at the Jeremy McIntyre Team Race, a third-place finish at the Graham Hall Team Race, a runner-up at the Aaron Szambecki Team Race, and third place at the Lynne Marchiando Team Race.
Having won the first five PCCSC conference trophies of the season, Stanford capped an impressive conference run with a dominant performance at the Carter Ford Team Race Conference Championship to claim its sixth and final title.
Live coverage of the event will available at collegesailing.org.