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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Jan Harley, Media Pro Int'l, 401-849-0220 St. Mary's College Leader After Day One at 2007 ICSA Women's National Championship Norfolk, Virginia (May 23, 2007) - While the nation's number one ranked women's college sailing team - St. Mary's College (St. Mary's City, Md.) - leads the overall standings after the opening day of racing at the ICSA (Intercollegiate Sailing Association) Women's National Championship, they will have to keep their guard up as the defending champions - College of Charleston (Charleston, S.C.) - are nipping at their heels with only one point separating them in the scoring. The featured action got underway at noon as competitors from 18 colleges set off in FJs from the Old Dominion University Sailing Center following their morning practice turn on the Elizabeth River. Six races were completed by both A- and B-Divisions on a flooding tide, which "makes it easier to rotate boats from a functional standpoint," according to Mitch Brindley, ODU's Head Coach and ICSA's President. "It was shiftier than we usually get at ODU - easterly to southeasterly - and blowing offshore from our sailing site. Both direction and velocity have been up and down (average 10 knots, lulls to three and picking up to 12 by the end of the day), which has been a good challenge for the sailors. We burned a lot of gas today keeping the course square." St. Mary's College (St. Mary's City, Md.) has won this title once previously (1995), but it's their success over this past year that has put them in a very enviable position coming into this event. "Often a team comes into a regatta with high expectations, but it really doesn't matter what you are ranked," said Adam Werblow who has been the Seahawks' Varsity Sailing Coach since 1988. "We are a good team, but we have to go out and show it and today was a really tough day on the course with a lot of place changes. This event has a big build up leading into it, especially since the regular season ended a month ago. The hardest thing is living through the first day and we've done that - now the first day jitters are out of the way." Junior Adrienne Patterson (Newport Beach, Calif.) is St. Mary's A-Division skipper with senior crew Melissa Pumphrey (Annapolis, Md.). Freshman skipper Sara Morgan Watters (Oxford, Md.) with junior crew Mattie Farrar (Blaine, Wash.) are sailing B-Division and sophomore Jennifer Chamberlin (Alexandria, Va.) is the Seahawks' alternate crew for both divisions. Despite the fact that they prefer "it be blowing 20 and steady," the Lady Cougars from the College of Charleston, ranked second in the nation, are in good position to defend their title. Sailing A-Division are sophmore skipper Andrea Savage (Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich.) with junior Danielle Neri (Newport, R.I.) and freshman Rebecca Bestoso (Erie, Penn) crewing, while freshman skipper Allie Blecher (Fullerton, Calif.) sails B-Division with freshman Christina Murray (Annapolis, Md.) and junior Julia Southworth (Marion, Mass.) handling crew duties. Following St. Mary's (60 points) and College of Charleston (61), Navy (Annapolis, Md.) holds third with 71 points, followed by UC-Irvine (Irvine, Calif.) with 79. Stanford rounds out the top-five with 81 points. For complete results and photos, as they become available visit: http://collegesailing.org/nas/spring07/womens/ The Details: The ICSA National Championships brings together sailors representing seven North American conferences. Each of the 18 qualified schools fields a separate A and B division team and, weather permitting, each division sails eighteen 20- to 30-minute fleet races for a total of 36 races. A team's final score is determined by the combined results of its sailors in A and B divisions. To learn more about ICSA, visit www.collegesailing.org <http://www.collegesailing.org/> . For additional information on the sponsors of these championships, please visit them online: www.h20camera.com <http://www.h20camera.com/> , www.gillna.com <http://www.gillna.com/> , www.apsltd.com <http://www.apsltd.com/> , www.quantumsails.com <http://www.quantumsails.com/> and www.teamvanguard.com <http://www.teamvanguard.com/> . -end- (Complete list of Teams Qualified to compete in the 2007 ICSA Women's National Championship follows) May 23-25, 2007 - ICSA Women's National Championship, hosted at Old Dominion University Boston College (Chestnut Hill, Mass.) Boston University (Boston, Mass.) College of Charleston (Charleston, S.C.) Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H.) Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.) Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.) William Smith College (Geneva, N.Y.) Old Dominion University (Norfolk, Va.) St. Mary's College (St. Mary's City, Md.) Stanford University (Stanford, Calif.) Tufts University (Medford, Mass.) University of California (Irvine, Calif.) University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Mich.) University of South Florida (St. Petersburg, Fla.) University of Texas (Austin, Texas) University of Washington (Seattle, Wash.) University of Wisconsin (Madison, Wis.) U.S. Naval Academy (Annapolis, Md.) (end) ________________________________________________ icsa mailing list [email protected] http://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=icsa
