Racing continued yesterday on the Severn River at the U.S. Naval Academy in the second day of the Sperry Top-Sider Women’s Semi-Finals. Twenty-eight collegiate sailing teams from across the nation qualified to compete in these semi-finals to determine the top 18 teams who will advance to the finals, which begin Thursday at 9:30 a.m. The 28 teams are divided into two fleets of 14 teams, Western and Eastern Semi-Final groups, the top nine from each fleet will make up the 18 teams who compete in the final.
Yesterday the fleets swapped the type of boats that they were sailing from Tuesday, so the Western fleet sailed in Z420s and the Eastern fleet sailed in FJs. The courses were again windward leeward with four legs.
The conditions in the morning were light winds around six miles per hour from a north northwesterly direction and temperatures in the high 70s with pretty high humidity. As the day progressed there was some cloud cover and a brief light rain. The temperature hovered around 80 degrees. The wind continued to come from a northwesterly direction averaging about five miles per hour, until the end of the day when the wind got very light and variable and shifted to a southeasterly direction.
The deadline for racing was 5 p.m. and the light winds at the end of the day made it difficult to squeeze in the racing before the deadline. The Western Semi-Final completed five races in both A and B-divisions for a total of 11 races for the event. The Eastern Semi-Final had two more races to sail in B-division this morning, so they completed six races today and four races in A-division for a total of 10 races for the event.
The University of Rhode Island (URI) was leading the Eastern fleet after yesterday’s racing, but today they fell to second place on a head-to-head tiebreaker with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). URI finished behind MIT on a tiebreaker and 16 points behind them in third is Boston College, who beat Old Dominion University in a head-to-head tiebreaker.
Yale University was leading the Western fleet after yesterday’s racing and they were able to hold on to their lead. Dartmouth College finished 23 points behind Yale with 92 points and ten points behind them is the U.S. Coast Guard Academy with 102 points.
The scoreboard is wiped clean for the finals, so teams will start fresh in the new event. The Sperry Top-Sider Women’s National Championship finals racing will begin Thursday at 9:30 a.m. The top 18 teams will be competing for the Gerald C. Miller Trophy over the next two days.
After racing today a dinner was held at the Naval Academy for the competitors and awards for the first two days of racing were presented including the US Sailing Grit Award for the two last teams to qualify for the finals in ninth place, Hobart and William Smith Colleges and the University of Wisconsin.
The Graham Hall award for Outstanding Service by a College Sailing Professional was also presented to Scott Ikle, head coach of the Hobart and William Smith sailing teams. Ikle has been involved with college sailing since the 1980s as both a competitor and coach. He has served as a director for the Mid-Atlantic conference for 15 years and has worked to ensure fair sailing, develop great talent for the conference and also help make the profession of a college sailing coach better.
Final Nine Teams Eastern Semi-Final:
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 90*
2. University of Rhode Island, 90*
3. Boston College, 106*
4. Old Dominion University, 106*
5. Stanford University, 108
6. Brown University, 121
7. Georgetown University, 125
8. Eckerd College, 128
9. Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 137
*Head-to-head tiebreaker
Final Nine Teams Western Semi-Final:
1. Yale University, 69
2. Dartmouth College, 92
3. U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 102
4. College of Charleston, 110
5. U.S. Naval Academy, 132
6. University of Hawaii, 152
7. Bowdoin College, 159
8. University of South Florida, 163
9. University of Wisconsin, 167
Video footage, sponsored by LaserPerformance, will be available during the Women’s finals with highlights and updates. Click on “Live Coverage” on the event website for these up-to-date racing details. Social media coverage will still be provided on collegesailing.org.
To learn more about the teams competing in the events and to follow the racing and results visit the event website: http://2014nationals.collegesailing.org/.
