REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Stanford sailing finished first among 22 teams at the St. Francis Interconference regatta this weekend on the San Francisco Bay.
Stanford won the regatta by a single point. The Cardinal finished with 97 points, which was ahead of UC Santa Barbara by the slimmest of margins. California Maritime Academy was third with 111 points and Tulane was fourth with 118.
The freshman pairing of John Kirkpatrick and Laurel Foster vaulted the Cardinal to the team title with a decisive 19-point victory in the A division. The duo accumulated just 38 points in nine races and topped the second-place Gauchos by 19 points. Among the 22 boats, Kirkpatrick and Foster won three times and finished as runner-up in two other races.
Sophomore skipper Sophia Sole and senior crew Cassie Obel helped seal the win with a sixth-place finish in the B division. They finished with 59 points, which included one victory and a runner-up finish as well as two other top-four showings.
In the ninth and final round of racing, Stanford finished ninth in the A division and seventh in the B division to hold off UC Santa Barbara, who won both races.
Stanford begins April with the PCCSC Team Race Conference Championships in San Diego, April 6-7.
