NEW LONDON, Conn./KINGSTON, R.I./SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - In its first competition weekend of the 2019-20 campaign, Stanford Sailing won the Moody Trophy, advanced three to singlehanded nationals and qualified for the Women's Showcase finals.
Junior Christina Sakellaris, freshman Hallie Schiffman and sophomore John Kirkpatrick each qualified for singlehanded nationals with top-two finishes at the PCCSC Singlehanded Championships. The defending national champion in the event, Sakellaris won her second straight conference title with just 11 points in 10 races. Schiffman was second in each of Sakellaris' 10 victories and the duo swapped the top two spots in one race.
Meanwhile, Kirkpatrick rebounded from an eighth-place finish to open the regatta and won four of the last 12 races to march into second place and a qualifying spot at the ICSA National Championships, Nov. 9-10 in Santa Barbara.
In Rhode Island, Stanford captured the Moody Trophy with 134 points. Brown was second with 162 and Yale finished third among the 18-team field with 163 points. The Cardinal was led by junior skipper Jack Parkin and senior crew Taylor Kirkpatrick, who won the A division with just 57 points -- nearly 20 points better than second-place Vermont. The duo won four of 13 races and finished as runner-up on two other occasions. In the B division, sophomore skipper Wiley Rogers and freshman crew Abigail Tindall were third with 77 points, including back-to-back wins to finish the regatta.
Stanford finished fifth at the Women's Showcase Semifinals in New London and advanced to the Finals in Annapolis, Maryland on Oct. 12-13. The top half of the field automatically qualified for the finals, and among the 16 teams, the Cardinal finished with 238 points behind a second-place finish from skipper Michelle Lahrkamp and crew Sammy Pickell and Ashton Borcherding in the A Division. The trio finished with 83 points, including top-five finishes in four of the last five races. Camille White, AnaClare Sole and Borcherding combined to finish 11th in the B division with 155 points in 16 races.
Next up for the Cardinal are the Coed Showcase Semis in Maryland and the Stu Nelson Trophy in Connecticut, Oct. 5-6.
