STANFORD, Calif. - After winning a pair of conference titles last weekend, Stanford looks to add another PCCSC crown as the host of the PCCSC Open Team Race Championship on April 12-13.
The Cardinal will also send a contingent to Connecticut for the Thompson Trophy Open Team Race this weekend, hosted by the United States Coast Guard Academy.
LAST TIME OUT » No. 2 Stanford sailing tallied its first conference championships of the spring slate, winning PCCSC titles in the Women's Team Race and Women's Fleet Race in Hawai'i over the weekend.
"We would like to thank the University of Hawai'i for hosting a beautiful event," said Augie Dale, the Malin Burnham Assistant Sailing Coach. "The team performed in very tricky conditions and we were able to come out on top in both divisions."
The competition began with the Women's Team Race on Friday, where the Cardinal registered a perfect 6-0 record over Hawai'i and California. Four of Stanford's six wins in the team race competition were 1-2-3 sweeps, with Vanessa Lahrkamp, Ellie Harned, and Sophie Fisher serving as skippers and Shay Wood, Kit Harned, and Alice Schmid on crew duties.
The action turned over to fleet race competition on Saturday and Sunday, where the Cardinal dominated with 14 wins and 23 team points to best the nine-team field. Hawai'i came in second with 41 points, followed by USC (63 points) and Cal (79 points).
In Division A, Stanford won seven races and finished with 12 team points, a ten-point advantage over second-place Hawai'i. Lahrkamp skippered the first eight races alongside Wood as crew, before taking over crew duties in races 9-10 while Harned assumed skipper responsibilities.
The quartet of Fisher, Ellie and Kit Harned, and Wood rotated duties in the "B" boat en route to seven wins of their own, never finishing outside of the top two as they finished the weekend with 11 points in the division.
FALL RECAP » A successful fall season saw the Cardinal win eight of the 19 regattas on the slate. Most notably, won PCCSC titles in the Match Race, Singlehanded, Women's Fall, and Open Championships.
The Cardinal also earned regatta wins in the Women's ACC Round 1, the Captain Hurst Bowl, Women's ACC Finals, the Open ACC Championship, and the Top-9 invite.
Stanford's accomplished fall was rewarded by a No. 1 fall ranking in both the Open and Women's division, as decided by Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA). ICSA rankings are voted and decided on by a panel of ICSA head coaches.
LAST SEASON » Stanford cemented itself as the best women’s sailing program in the nation in 2024, completing the sweep of the ICSA Women’s Team and Fleet Race Championships, also becoming back to back champions in the Women’s Fleet.
Stanford’s fall season began with eight regatta wins. Along with the success on the water, the Cardinal sailors also celebrated their 2023 trophies, as the team received its championship rings at a football game.
Stanford picked up right where it left off to start the spring season, winning six straight regattas. The Cardinal went on to claim four conference championship trophies, taking both the women and open divisions of the team and fleet races.
To cap off the season before Nationals began, Stanford claimed the PCCSC Open Team Race title and the Thompson trophy over the same weekend. The Cardinal went 38-1 across the two events to take the wins in a conference championship and a premier interconference trophy.
The Cardinal then headed to the Charles River where it competed in four straight national championships hosted by MIT. In the first regatta, Stanford earned a top five finish, taking fifth place in the ICSA Open Team Race. The result was Stanford's sixth straight top-five finish, dating back to 2018.
Directly following the open team race, Stanford captured its first title of the 2024 spring season. The Cardinal took the trophy in dominant fashion, as Stanford sailed to an 18-1 record to top the field at the ICSA Women's Team Race National Championship.
In the following national championship event, Stanford claimed yet another title. The Cardinal took its second straight ICSA Women's Fleet Race title and its fifth national title overall, topping the field on the Charles River in Massachusetts.
The title was Stanford's fourth national title in the last calendar year (2023 - ICSA Women's Fleet, ICSA Open Fleet; 2024 - ICSA Women's Team, ICSA Women's Fleet). The Cardinal also won multiple national titles in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history.
Following Stanford's dominant performance in the national championships, the Cardinal took home plenty of individual accolades.
Vanessa Lahrkamp was named the Quantum Women's College Sailor of the Year, the second in program history as Lahrkamp joins her sister who earned the accolade in 2020. Vanessa Lahrkamp was instrumental in leading Stanford to the ICSA Women's Team and Fleet Race titles in 2024, also earning the title of PCCSC Women's Skipper of the Year.
Vanessa Lahrkamp also earned two All-America awards, claiming a nod as an ICSA Women's Skipper All-American and an ICSA Open Skipper Honorable Mention selection. It's the second straight year Lahrkamp was honored in both the Women's and Open divisions.
Michelle Lahrkamp also earned two All-America awards for the second straight season, being named both an ICSA Women's Skipper and Open Skipper All-American.
Hannah Freeman earned her second consecutive ICSA Women's Skipper All-America award while Thomas Sitzmann joined the Lahrkamp sisters with an ICSA Open Skipper All-America nod.
Stanford also had three crews named All-Americans. Alice Schmid, Ellie Harned, and Gwendolyn Donahue were each named All-America Crews after their dominant performances led Stanford to two national titles.