St. Mary’s Finishes Just Shy of the ICSA Team National Championship

San Francisco, Calif. - The St. Mary's College of Maryland sailing team was just a win away from claiming the 2009 Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association/APS Team Race National Championship (May 29-31) hosted by University of California, Berkley and California Maritime Academy at the Treasure Island Sailing Center in San Francisco.  The Seahawks notched a 12-5 record to finish ahead of Georgetown University's 10-7 mark for second place at the team race championship.

Boston College won the 2009 title with a 13-4 record, successfully defending its crown from a year ago and marking the third collegiate sailing national title the Eagles have won in school history. 

For three days, the top 14 schools in the nation - as determined by their performance in one of the seven ICSA conferences to which they belong - raced for the championship title.  The event pitted each college's three-boat team against another's in a round-robin series of matches and started with the 14 teams divided into two groups.  The top four finishers from Group 1 and 2 moved on to the "elite eight" (a.k.a. the Gold Round), before the "final four" to determine the champion.

In Group 1, Georgetown's win of the first race of the event started the Hoyas on a winning streak which saw them conclude round one undefeated.  Also moving on to the next round from Group 1 were College of Charleston, Harvard University and Yale University, all with 4-2 records.

Racing in Group 2 got really interesting on the second day of competition after St. Mary's (6-0) and Boston College (5-1) qualified to move on while Stanford University, University of South Florida and SUNY Maritime College went into triple overtime to break a three-way tie.  Ultimately, while USF lost the battle and Stanford and SUNY moved on to race in the elite eight, USF would go on to win the consolation round with a 5-0 record.

By the conclusion of the Gold Round only BC, St. Mary's, Georgetown and Yale remained in contention for the title.

Skippers Jesse Kirkland '10 (Warwick, Bermuda), Ted Hale '10 (Annapolis, Md.), Megan Magill '11 (San Diego, Calif.) and Michael Menninger '11 (Newport Beach, Calif.) sailed the races for the Seahawks.  Crewing were seniors Caitlin Hill (Tiverton, R.I.) and Jen Chamberlin (Alexandria, Va.), juniors Kelly Wilbur (Ipswich, Mass.) and Mike Kuschner (San Francisco, Calif.), and sophomores Maddie Jackson (Bainbridge Island, Wash.) and Franny Kupersmith (Alexandria, Va.).

The centerpiece of the three ICSA national championships, the ICSA/Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship, will be held June 1-3.  Stanford University and the St. Francis Yacht Club will serve as the regatta hosts.

Of the 33 schools that have taken to the waters of San Francisco Bay for the three national championships, St. Mary's is only one of eight institutions that qualified for all three championship events.

SUMMARY OF SCORES (W-L)
FINAL FOUR
1. Boston College (13-4)
2. St. Mary's (12-5)
3. Georgetown (10-7)
4. Yale (9-8)

GOLD FLEET
5. Charleston (7-7)
6. Harvard (6-8)
7. Stanford (3-11)
8. SUNY Maritime (2-12) 

SILVER FLEET
9. South Florida (5-0)
10. UC Irvine (4-1)
11. Washington (3-2)
12. Wisconsin (2-3)
13. Michigan (1-4)
14. Tulane (0-5)