April 12, 2004

San Francisco - The Cardinal battled neck and neck with the Trojans over two days of racing off the cityfront at this year's St Francis Intersectional regatta. The annual two-day event (April 10-11) draws the top teams from the West Coast as their last major event before the Pacific Coast Championships (to be hosted by Stanford May 1-2).

With USC's Mikee Anderson/Vanessa Decollibus earning an untouchable lead after the first day, the fight in A Division was for 2nd place. Sailing for the Cardinal, Brian Haines and Lucy Horton battled for 2nd in A against UW's Brendan Fahey/Kim Kishi. Regaining the lead in the penultimate race, Haines/Horton fouled and took a penalty turn. The duo made a great comeback in the 24-boat fleet, finishing 13th overall. However, 13th put Haines/Horton solidly behind UW - with 3rd in A-Division.

Dominating in B-Division, Stanford's Pete Deming and Taylor Clark worked a comfortable 9-point margin between themselves and USC's Harrison Turner/Lessa Grunefelder. "Pete and Taylor sailed their most consistent regatta to date," commented Coach Jay Kehoe, "Their confidence will take the team through a tough PCC's next month."

Dominating over all the other Women's teams on the West Coast, The Stanford Women earned an impressive 7th overall in the regatta, and top women's team. In A-Division, Jen Porter/Anna Vu started each day in the lighter breeze with a series of top-10 finishes. When the breeze built, Liz "The Hammer" Shearer came off the bench to crew for Porter. The combination earned the Cardinal Women's A-Division 7th overall in 8th in A-Division. Sailing In B-Div, Ashley Frush and Joanna Madsen braved both light an heavy winds together and earned 9th. "This was a great confidence booster going into our Women's PCC's next weekend in Hawaii," explained Coach Kehoe.

This weekend, Haines/Horton, Deming/Clark and Emery Wager head to New York to sail the Admiral's Cup, a 3-Division regatta at the US Merchant Marine Academy at King's Point. This is the last major Intersectional event before each districts' qualifiers for the Nationals.

The Women and the additional Coed Sailors will head to Cascade Locks, Oregon to sail the Rainier Cup regatta. "We're heading up to compete and do research on the conditions at the Gorge site," said Assistant Coach Brent Harrill. The Rainier event is held at the site to be used for this year's Women's, Coed and Team Race Nationals (May 26-June 8, 2004).

St. Francis Regatta Results A, B & Totals
  1. U Southern Calif       39   53   92
  2. Stanford               59   44  103
  3. U Washington           51   82  133
  4. UC Irvine              82   59  141
  5. U Hawaii               61   86  147
  6. UC Santa Barbara      100   88  188
  7. Stanford Women        107  120  227
  8. U Southern Cal Women   89  139  228
  9. U Hawaii Women        130  113  243
10. UC Santa Barbara Wom  130  124  254
11. UC Irvine Women       178   87  265
12. UC Berkeley           125  151  276
13. Cal Maritime          170  135  305
14. UC San Diego          195  182  377
15. Portland State U      185  201  386
16. UCLA                  216  221  437
17. Western Washington    225  222  447
18. U Oregon              222  230  452
19. CSU Monterey Bay      212  253  465
20. Notre Dame            225  255  480
21. UC Santa Cruz         272  230  502
22. Orange Coast College  280  288  568
23. CSU Northridge        287  297  584
24. Santa Clara U         323  325  648