Seahawks Claim 6th at ICSA Women’s National Championship

San Francisco, Calif. - The No. 5 St. Mary's College of Maryland women's sailing team finished sixth at the 2009 Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association Women's National Championship (May 26-27) hosted by Stanford University and the St. Francis Yacht Club.  The Seahawks totaled 202 points in 28 completed races, besting No. 6 Georgetown University by six points.

No. 1 Yale University demonstrated why the Bulldogs are the top-ranked women's team in the country as Yale captured the program's second ICSA Women's National Championship title.  The Bulldogs scored 148 points as senior skipper Jane Macky (Auckland, New Zealand) and junior crew Marla Menninger (Newport Beach, Calif.) took first in the A division with 53 points.  Marla's brother, Michael, is a sophomore skipper for St. Mary's.  The Bulldogs edged second-place College of Charleston by nine points.

In B division, junior skipper Sara Morgan Watters (Oxford, Md.) placed fifth with crew Sara Flowe (Jr./Hampton, Va.).  St. Mary's posted 86 points, finishing behind No. 9 Old Dominion University and No. 11 Brown University as both schools notched 83 points.

Sophomore Megan Magill (San Diego, Calif.) skippered the A division boat to sixth place with crew Keisha Pearson (Sr./East Patchogue, N.Y.) and Jen Chamberlin (Sr./Alexandria, Va.) as the Seahawks tallied 116 points to finish two points behind Brown.

St. Mary's season continues as the Seahawks will compete in the 2009 ICSA/APS Team Racing National Championship, which starts tomorrow and wraps up on May 31.  The regatta is being hosted by University of California, Berkley and California Maritime Academy at the Treasure Island Sailing Center in San Francisco.

Of the 33 schools who will take 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.  The final championship event will be the 2009 ICSA/Gill Coed Dinghy Championship on June 1-3.