Coast Guard Leads College Women’s Nationals

San Diego, CA (May 26, 2016) – After completing the Sperry Women’s National Semi-Finals, the top 18 teams advanced today to begin the Final series for the 2016 title. And while the Semi-Final scores don’t roll into the Finals, some of the performances did today.

The wind gods allowed for the 10:30am start, but then went ‘Lucy’ on the fleet and pulled the football, with a postponement needed for the afternoon seabreeze to lock in. But once the race committee started up the machine again, so did Coast Guard, continuing the domination they showed in the Semi-Finals. After 10 races, Coast Guard holds a 34 point lead over Brown University.

“We trust our process and both divisions are following it and executing it,” said Brian Swingly, head coach for Coast Guard. “We look at each race individually and today we made a plan for this afternoon and it worked really well. We have really smart sailors and tomorrow morning they will think about what they learned today and apply it to the day’s racing.”

Coast Guard A Division of Nikole Barnes (’17) and Anna Morin (’19) did the heavy lifting with all top seven finishes, closing the day with four straight bullets to end with a 37 point lead over Dartmouth. In B Division, Boston University’s Lydia Grasberger (’18) and Meredith Harrington (’18) stumbled out of the gate with a 14-8, but then locked in with all top six scores to build a nine point lead over Brown University.

“The level of competition has been raised today,” says John Mollicone, head coach for Brown University. “You paid for your mistakes today. Our goals were to start well – which we usually do – get off the line well and finish in the single digits. I am really proud of how the girls did a good job coming back after a couple of tough races.”

If there were any surprises today, it was how top ranked University of Rhode Island couldn’t match their Semi-Final pace, with too many scores in the teens pulling them down to seventh overall. And if Yale University has any chance in defending their 2015 title, there is now an 86 point mountain for them to climb.

With eight more races to go, the Nationals is now for Coast Guard to lose. After three straight days of dominating performance, their greatest threat could be the protestors in town for tomorrow’s Donald Trump campaign rally. Racing concludes Friday, May 27.

Sperry Women’s National Championship – Day One Results
1. U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 94
2. Brown University, 128
3. Boston University, 142
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 172
5. College of Charleston, 179
6. Yale University, 180
7. University of Rhode Island, 180
8. University of Vermont, 188
9. Dartmouth College, 191
10. Stanford University, 200
11. Boston College, 200
12. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 203
13. University of California Santa Barbara, 207
14. Bowdoin College, 210
15. Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 220
16. George Washington University, 231
17. Georgetown University, 245
18. University of Wisconsin, 250

Event details – Scoreboard – Photos – Livestream – Facebook

Background: The Intercollegiate Sailing Association’s three spring national championships, Sperry Women’s National Semi-Final and Final Championship, LaserPerformance Team Race National Championship, and the Gill Coed Dinghy National Semi-Final and Final Championship will be held May 24-June 3, with schools racing Club and Collegiate FJs on San Diego Bay in San Diego, CA. The three events will be co-hosted by San Diego Yacht Club and the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference.

Source: Scuttlebutt, ICSA