March 29, 2004

Norfolk, VA - The Stanford Cardinal sailors competed against other top-ranked teams at the Szambecki Team Race hosted by Old Dominion University. Glimpses of the racing were featured on ESPN's coverage of the Women's NCAA tournament (also hosted by ODU this past weekend). The television coverage, shown on Sunday, was actually of Saturday's racing, which was unfortunately plaugued by light-air conditions, causing the races to move very slowly.

Between wind delays, the Stanford team went 2-1 on Saturday, beating 2nd ranked St. Mary's of Maryland and King's Point, while earning their only loss against 8th ranked Hobart/Wm Smith. This left the Cardinal 2nd overall in the regatta after day 1.

Sunday's wind of 10-20 knots made for great racing. In the conclusion of the preliminary round-robin, Stanford dominated 10th ranked College of Charleston, UC Santa Barbara and Texas A&M. A loss to 13th ranked Old Dominion seeded Stanford 3rd in the final 6 sail-off. In the finals, another loss to ODU and a loss to St. Mary's left the Stanford team in 4th overall.

Team Racing is the most tactical form of sailboat racing, where three boats from one team use boathandling, speed and rules to colectively finish better than three boats from another team. Sailing for the Cardinal in this 3-on-3 racing format were skippers Jen Porter, Peter Deming, Brian Haines and Emery Wager. Crews were Taylor Clark, Liz Shearer, Anna Vu, Caroline Young and Becca Levin.

FINAL RESULTS:
1. Hobart/Wm Smith: 11-1
2. St. Mary's of MD: 8-4
3. Old Dominion University: 8-4
4. Stanford: 6-6
5. College of Charleston: 4-8
6. US MMA, King's Point: 3-9
7. UC Santa Barbara: 2-5
8. Texas A&M Galveston: 0-7