ICSA National Championships action starts tomorrow

by Jan Harley on 25 May 2010 Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) National Championships 2010 preview.

Whether ranked as the best place to live in the USA (Money 1996), the healthiest city in America (Men’s Journal 2004), or second in the nation for overall education (Forbes 2007), Madison, Wisconsin, will surely rate well with the college sailors who have travelled to 'The City of Four Lakes' for the 2010 Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) National Championships.

For the next 10 days, Lake Mendota, a.k.a. Third Lake, will be the proving ground for competitors from the 32 schools who have earned the right to challenge for one of ICSA’s three championship titles: the ICSA Women's National Championship (May 25-28), the ICSA/APS Team Race National Championship (May 29-31), and the ICSA/Gill National Championship (June 1-3). All three events are being hosted by the University of Wisconsin, utilizing their fleet of 420s, from the regatta base at Memorial Union and Hoofer Sailing Club.

Of the 32 schools participating in the championships, eight qualified to compete in all three events: Boston College (Chestnut Hill, Mass.), College of Charleston (Charleston, S.C.), Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.), St. Mary’s College (St. Mary’s City, Md.), Stanford University (Palo Alto, Calif.), Tufts University (Medford, Mass.) the U.S. Naval Academy (Annapolis, Md.) and Yale University (New Haven, Conn.). (A complete list of competing colleges, by event, follows.)

Boston College, winner of three titles in the last two years (ICSA Women’s and ICSA/APS Team Race National Championships in 2008, ICSA/APS Team Race National Championships in 2009), comes to Madison ranked number one in the nation in both the women’s and team racing events according to Sailing World’s College Rankings as of May 13. Yale University, winner of the ICSA Women’s Nationals in 2009 is ranked seventh in women’s sailing and second in coed sailing, while Brown University holds the number two ranking in women’s sailing.

The Format: For the ICSA Women's National Championship, 18 of the 27 schools entered are racing in the semi-final round on day one (May 25). The remaining nine schools, having earned a ticket straight to the finals by virtue of their conference performance throughout the year, will face off against the top nine finishers from the semi-finals to determine the championship winners. In both the women’s championship and the ICSA/Gill National Championship – in which 18 schools who qualified from one of two semi-final events held in early May will compete – each school fields a separate A and B division team with, weather permitting, each division sailing 20- to 30-minute fleet races in rotation. A team's final score is determined by the combined results of its sailors in A and B divisions. The ICSA/APS Team Race National Championship pits each college's three-boat team against another's in a round-robin series of matches with the top-four of the 14 entered teams proceeding to a double round-robin championship series to determine the overall winner.

Catch the Replay: Noted sailing commentator Gary Jobson (Annapolis, Md.) will produce a program on the ICSA/Gill National Championship for ESPNU. Air dates will be posted at www.jobsonsailing.com.

ICSA is the governing authority for sailing competition at colleges and universities throughout the United States and in some parts of Canada. To learn more please visit: www.collegesailing.org. ICSA is sponsored by Gill, Annapolis Performance Sailing, Marlow Ropes, Quantum Sails, LaserPerformance and US SAILING: www.gillna.com, www.apsltd.com, www.bainbridgeint.com, www.quantumsails.com, www.laserperformance.com/main/ and www.ussailing.org


(Complete list of Teams Qualified to compete in the 2010 ICSA National Championships follows)
May 25-28, 2010 - ICSA Women’s National Championship
Boston College (Chestnut Hill, Mass.)
Brown University (Providence, R.I.)
College of Charleston (Charleston, S.C.)
Connecticut College (New London, Conn.)
Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H.)
Eckerd College (St. Petersburg, Fla.)
Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.)
Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.)
Old Dominion University (Norfolk, Va.)
St. Mary's College (St. Mary’s City, Md.)
Stanford University (Palo Alto, Calif.)
Texas A & M Galveston (Galveston, Texas)
Tufts University (Medford, Mass.)
Tulane University (New Orleans, La.)
University of Florida (Gainesville, Fla.)
University of Hawaii (Honolulu, Hawaii)
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, Minn.)
University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Penn.)
University of Southern California (Los Angeles, Calif.)
University of South Florida (St. Petersburg, Fla.)
University of Texas (Austin, Texas)
University of Washington (Seattle, Wash.)
University of Wisconsin (Madison, Wisc.)
U.S. Naval Academy (Annapolis, Md.)
William Smith College (Geneva, N.Y.)
Yale University (New Haven, Conn.)

May 29-31, 2010 - ICSA/APS Team Race National Championship
Boston College (Chestnut Hill, Mass.)
College of Charleston (Charleston, S.C.)
Eckerd College (St. Petersburg, Fla.)
Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.)
Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.)
St. Mary's College (St. Mary’s City, Md.)
Stanford University (Palo Alto, Calif.)
Texas A & M Galveston (Galveston, Texas)
Tufts University (Medford, Mass.)
U.S. Naval Academy (Annapolis, Md.)
University of Hawaii (Honolulu, Hawaii)
University of Washington (Seattle, Wash.)
University of Wisconsin (Madison, Wis.)
Yale University (New Haven, Conn.)

June 1-3, 2010 - ICSA/Gill National Championship
Boston College (Chestnut Hill, Mass.)
Brown University (Providence, R.I.)
College of Charleston (Charleston, S.C.)
Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.)
Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.)
Hobart & William Smith Colleges (Geneva, N.Y.)
Old Dominion University (Norfolk, Va.)
Roger Williams University (Bristol, R.I.)
St. Mary's College (St. Mary’s City, Md.)
Salve Regina University (Newport, R.I.)
Stanford University (Palo Alto, Calif.)
SUNY Maritime College (Throggs Neck, N.Y.)
Tufts University (Medford, Mass.)
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (Kings Point, N.Y.)
U.S. Naval Academy (Annapolis, Md.)
University of South Florida (St. Petersburg, Fla.)
University of Vermont (Burlington, Vt.)
Yale University (New Haven, Conn.)