May 29, 2012
AUSTIN, TEXAS - The Old Dominion University women's sailing team is set to compete at the 2012 Intercollegiate Sailing Association’s (ICSA) Women’s National Semi-Final and Final Championship on Wednesday, May 30 with the Women’s event, which will last for four days on Lake Travis in Austin.
The Women’s Semi-Final Championship begins Wednesday, May 30 with an 8 a.m. report time and first race warning set for 10 a.m. The event begins with a single round robin First Round of qualifying races for the 18 women’s teams who have made it to a semifinal round, but not yet made it to the final competition round. The First Round group will race until they complete at least the required number of races (16) for nine teams to join the nine previously qualified Finals teams to compete for the Gerald C. Miller Memorial Trophy. Once the 18 final teams have been determined the Finals racing will commence in a single round robin and continue until June 2. For the nine women’s teams that did not make it to the Final round a Women’s Clinic will be run simultaneously for them to participate in.
The Women’s Championship will culminate in an awards banquet at 6:30 p.m. on June 2 with dinner and the announcement of the winners of the event. In addition to the racing awards, the announcement of the ICSA Women’s All-America Team will be made as well as the Quantum Women’s Sailor of the
Year.
Old Dominion is joined by Brown, Connecticut, College of Charleston, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Eckerd, Harvard, Hobart and William Smith, St. Mary's College (Md.), Hawai'i, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Southern California, Washington, Washington College and Wisconsin in the semifinals.
The racing will take place in Austin, Texas on Lake Travis hosted by the University of Texas Sailing Team and the Austin Yacht. Lake Travis is technically a dammed river surrounded by a hilly and mountainous landscape. The two organizations hosted the National Championships last in 2005 where the competitors enjoyed shifty, but consistent wind speeds around 12-15 mph on clear water for nearly ten days straight. The conditions this year are expected to be similar; although a drought this year has dropped the water level quite a bit. Luckily the lake is deep and it will not affect the sailing. To learn more about which teams are competing and to follow the results and racing live visit the event website: http://2012nationals.collegesailing.org/.
Watch live media coverage of the regattas by clicking on the Live Media link at 2012nationals.collegesailing.org. The University of Texas will provide daily text and photo updates for each of the regattas. On May 31-June 5, Chris Love Productions will also provide video highlights, presented by Maclaren.