Stanford Beats USC For Berth To National Championship

April 26, 2004

Honolulu, Hawaii - The Stanford Women's Sailing Team earned one of twoPacific Coast berths to the 2004 Intercollegiate Sailing Association NorthAmerican Women's Sailing Championships. The Cardinal finished second in thePacific Coast Champs, hosted by University of Hawaii in their home watersof Keehi lagoon, April 24-25.

A stronghold of women's sailing, the west coast is home to 5 of collegesailing's top 15 teams, making this event one of the toughest qualifiers inthe nation. The home water was a definite advantage to the Wahine, whoselead was only threatened by a short rally of first place finishes from theStanford team on Saturday. The battle for second raged between Stanford,USC, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara.

Tradewinds were the advantage for the Cardinal, "The wind was great forus," commented Head Coach Jay Kehoe referring to the 15-20 knot tradewindsthat dominated the 36-race event. Sailing in A Division, Jennifer Porterstarted with crew Anna Vu, then switched to Liz Shearer as the breezebuilt. With the lead changing after almost each set of races, Porter/Vu/Shearer ultimately earned 4th in the competitive A Division.

The duo of Liz Rountree and Julie Pitts earned first in B Division with aslim 1-point lead over second place U Hawaii's Decurtis/Reed. "Rountreeand Pitts were the key to our consistent lead over the other teams,"explained Kehoe.

The 10th-ranked Cardinal Women earned second by one point over rival 6th-ranked Women of Troy. They will next compete against each other and theother 16 top schools in North America at the ICSA NA Champs May 26-28,hosted by the Northwest College Sailing Association at Cascade Locks,Oregon.

This weekend Stanford will host the Team Race and Fleet Race Pacific CoastChampionships (Friday, April 30 and Saturday-Sunday, May 1-2). The eventwill decide who will represent the Pacific Coast in Team and Coed FleetRacing at May-June's ICSA Team Race and Fleet Race North American Champs.