May 25, 2011
CASCADE LOCKS, Ore. - Once again the Old Dominion women's sailing team is performing at its best when it counts the most. The Lady Monarchs completed the first round of sailing in fifth to advance to the Sperry Top-Sider/ICSA Women's National Championship Final Round, where after four races, ODU sits in fourth-place overall.
Tuesday's sailing began with the final races for the first round women's teams, who were competing to make it in the top nine to move on to race in the Final Round of the Women's National Championships. The Lady Monarchs completed the first round with two solid races in each division.
Skippers Stephanie Roble and Morgan Wilson were both joined by new crews on day two as the wind was much lighter. Roble and Emily Reich posted finishes of third and sixth, while Wilson teamed up with Shannon Wilkins for fourth- and eighth-place results.
Old Dominion completed the first round with 108 points to finish fifth in the 18-team field vying for the nine spots in the national final. The qualifying teams (in order) that moved onto the finals were: Yale, Brown, URI, Coast Guard, ODU, Harvard, University of South Florida, Eckerd and Georgetown.
After a break for lunch, racing for the Women's National Championships began. With the sun shining, the women sailed out to the course in 4-8 mph westerly winds. The racing moved along slowly in the afternoon as the sailors had to battle the current out to the starting line and the unusually light winds were only adding to the difficulty.
The Lady Monarchs started off strong, winning the first A-Division race to grab the early lead. After back-to-back ninth place results in the next A-Division race and the first B-Division race, ODU finished strong with a third-place result in the final B-Division race of the day.
After boats came to shore for the switch in divisions, an hour postponement occurred before the race committee called the racing for the day because the wind did not fill in strongly enough.
With only one set in each division completed, racing will begin tomorrow at 12 noon eastern time.
Visit the event website for results, live coverage and more information: 2011nationals.collegesailing.info
-ODU-