July 16, 2010
ISTANBUL, Turkey-- Stanford recruit and one of America's top young sailors, Mateo Vargas, finished 13th in the world at the Youth Sailing Laser World Championships late Thursday in the laser division of the championships.
The St. Petersburg, Fla. native was the highest scoring American amongst the 50 competitors, finishing with 153.0 points. New Zealand's Thomas Sanders was the overall winner, scoring 77.0 points.
Vargas, part of Stanford's freshman class set to sail in the fall, won the nation's toughest youth singlehanded regatta, the Orange Bowl Laser in 2009, beating out 140 teams for the title.
Vargas is also a part of the U.S. Sailing Olympic Development team, a targeted group of sailors which are slated to develop into Olympic caliber sailors in 2012 in London and beyond.
Overall, the U.S. Team garnered three bronze medals, its best finish in 18 years and finished ninth overall behind overall winner, France.
Stanford, under second year head coach John Vandemoer, swept through all three Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference titles this past spring, and was one of only eight programs nationwide to have teams competing in all three national championship events in Wisconsin.