STANFORD, Calif. – Another impressive season came to an end for the Stanford sailing team, which won five conference championships and finished third in the Fowle Trophy, an accumulation of all six Intercollegiate Sailing Association national championships.
Fresh Faces
The Cardinal welcomed nine new student-athletes to the team. Stanford's class of 2019 included Russell Clarida (Southport, Connecticut), William Marshall (Auburndale, Massachusetts), Kathryn Booker (St. Petersburg, Florida), Mimi El-Khazindar (Lymington, United Kingdom), Meg Gerli (Washington D.C.), Olivia Gugliemini (Manahawkin, N.J.), Cassie Obel (Marina del Rey, California), Maggie Schult (Severna Park, Maryland) and Martina Sly (Weston, Florida).
Fall Championships
Freshman skipper Mimi El-Khazindar and sophomore crew Grace Lucas took home the PCCSC Fall Women's title, with freshmen tandem Martina Sly and Maggie Schult in second place. On the same day, Stanford finished second in the PCCSC Match Racing Championship, narrowly missing out on nationals via a tiebreaker with UC Santa Barbara.
Haley Fox and Olivia Gugliemini gave the Cardinal a one-two finish in the PCCSC Women's Singlehanded Championship, while Luke Muller won the men's side with William Marshall finishing fourth. Muller went on to finish sixth at nationals to back up his second-place finish as a freshman. Fox took ninth place in the women's division, while Gugliemini finished 14th in her first national championship.
Conference Championships
Stanford won all three spring PCCSC championships -- including the team racing, coed and women's titles. The Cardinal went 5-0 in the team racing fleet, thanks to skippers Antoine Screve, Axel Sly and Will La Dow, as well as crews Kennedy Placek, Sammy Steele and Nikki Obel. In the coed championship, La Dow, Sly, Screve and Reinier Eenkema van Dijk skippered Stanford to victory, with Placek, Steele and the Obel sisters serving as crews. At the women's PCCSC championship, junior Lily Katz and freshman Mimi El-Khazindar took the reigns with Kathryn Booker and Elena VandenBerg serving as crews for a dominating win.
Nationals
Stanford's young squad performed admirably at the ICSA Spring National Championships, scoring top-10 finishes in all three events.
Freshman skipper Martina Sly and senior crew Yuki Yoshiyasu led the charge for the Cardinal in the women's championship, finishing third in the B-fleet. The pair placed in the top six in 11 of 18 races, while Sly was the highest-finishing freshman in the championship.
Pumped for the first day of Team Racing Nationals! Go Cardinal!
A photo posted by Stanfordsailing (@stanfordsailing) on May 28, 2016 at 9:31am PDT
In the team racing championship, Stanford finished sixth, narrowly missing out on the final four for consecutive seasons. Seniors Axel Sly and Antoine Screve and sophomore Will La Dow skippered all 22 races for the Cardinal with junior J.P. Cannistraro, senior Sammy Steele and freshman Kathryn Booker serving as crews.
The Cardinal wrapped up an impressive showing in San Diego with a sixth-place finish in the coed championship. Senior skipper Antoine Screve, senior crew Sammy Steele and junior crew J.P. Cannistraro finished sixth in the A-division. Freshman skipper Will La Dow took the reigns in the B-division, finishing fifth with freshman crew Kathryn Booker and sophomore crew Kennedy Placek.
Awards Season
Stanford took third place in the Fowle Trophy, an accumulation of all six national championship regattas (coed, team racing, women's, women's singlehanded, men's singlehanded and match racing).
"The team is really proud of our third-place finish in the Fowle Trophy," said head coach John Vandemoer. "I'm really proud of the whole team. Not just our players at nationals, but all who have worked so hard and contributed so much."
The Cardinal also garnered six ICSA All-America nods, earning at least one selection in each category – coed, crew and women's.
A photo posted by Stanfordsailing (@stanfordsailing) on Jun 30, 2016 at 7:17pm PDT
Senior Sammy Steele was named All-America crew after a consistent season culminating in two strong performances at the ICSA National Championships. Steele helped Stanford finish sixth at the Laserperformance Team Racing Championship before crewing Stanford`s A-division boat at the Gill Coed National Championship.
Junior J.P. Cannistraro was also named All-America crew, the first such honor in his collegiate career. Cannistraro helped Stanford finish sixth in the A-division at coed nationals, also crewing all 22 races in the team racing championship.
Senior Antoine Screve was named All-America honorable mention at coed skipper for the second consecutive season. Screve skippered all 22 races for Stanford in team racing nationals before finishing sixth in the A-division at coed nationals.
Sophomore Will La Dow earned his first career All-America selection as an honorable mention coed skipper. La Dow was a big part of Stanford`s success at nationals, finishing fifth in the B-division of coed nationals and sailing every race at team racing nationals.
Freshman Martina Sly was named honorable mention women`s skipper, spearheaded by her performance at the Sperry ICSA Women's Nationals. With crew Yuki Yoshiyasu, Sly led Stanford to a third-place finish in the B-division, helping the Cardinal finish ninth. She was the highest-finishing freshman in the fleet.
Freshman Kathryn Booker earned an All-America crew honorable mention, highlighted by her consistency across all three spring disciplines. She was the only Stanford sailor to represent the Cardinal in all three spring national championships (women`s, coed, team racing).
The six selections tied Stanford`s 2014 squad for the most in program history, and comes one season after having four student-athletes named All-America in 2015.