ICSA/APS Team Race National Championship Day 2

by Jennifer Mitchell on 5 Jun 2012 Racing continued today for the ICSA/APS Team Race National Championships on Lake Travis in Austin, Texas. The regatta is co-hosted by the University of Texas Sailing Team and the Austin Yacht Club.

The top fourteen collegiate team racing teams in the nation has qualified to compete for the championship title, the Walter C. Wood Trophy.

Racing began today around 10 a.m. with the Silver single round robin, which determines who is awarded places 9-14. Winds were from the southeast 4-6 knots and the temperature was about 80 degrees under cloudy skies. The water was flatter today, since it is a weekday and there was less motorboat chop. Forty-three races total were completed between the Silver and Gold fleets.

The winds stayed pretty light all morning, but it was enough to keep the racing going. The University of Wisconsin dominated the Silver round and won all five of their races with 1,2 combinations. Placing behind them was the University of Miami with only one loss to Wisconsin.

Silver Results – Number of wins out of 5 races
9. University of Wisconsin, 5
10. University of Miami, 4
11. University of California at Santa Barbara, 3
12. University of Oregon, 1
13. University of Texas A&M Galveston, 1
14. University of Michigan, 1

The Gold fleet second round began around 1 p.m. in 10 knots of breeze out of the south-southeast. The air was warm around 84 degrees. As the first flights of races got started the wind began to die on the racecourse and around 2 p.m. the wind gave out and racing was postponed.

The wind kicked up to 10-12 knots around 3 p.m. out of the south-southeast and the races got started again. It was a long hot day for the competitors due to the heat, fairly light winds and loads of sailing to be done. There was barely time for breaks in between races as the teams had to rotate and head right back out on the water.

The top eight teams showed their strength today and how evenly matched they are with a lot of close and condensed races. St. Mary’s was leading the standings for part of the day, but the College of Charleston claimed back their lead from yesterday and ended the day on top.

'The racing was challenging and the teams are very competitive,' says Ward Cromwell, Charleston’s head coach. He says they did not win a race today in the combination they wanted to win it with, but they were able to win the most races and are fortunate to be where they are. Looking at tomorrow, Cromwell says they will look to improve their starts and sail better.

Sailing for Charleston is: Zeke Horowitz ’12 and Cory DeCollibus’13, Ben Spector ’13 and Alyssa Aitken ’12 and Mac Mace ’13 and Perry Emsiek ’12.

Gold Round 2 Results
1. College of Charleston
2. St. Mary’s College of Maryland
3. Boston College
4. Hobart and William Smith
5. Roger Williams University
6. Brown University
7. Georgetown University
8. Stanford University

Racing was completed at 6:15 p.m., aside from a protest from Roger Williams, which in the end was disallowed due to not following the proper protest filing procedure. The top four teams will report for racing tomorrow at 9 a.m. The final four will begin around 10 a.m., which will be a single round robin series. Conditions are predicted to be similar to today, hot with winds from the south-southeast around six-eight knots.

Watch live media coverage of the ICSA/APS Team Race Championship by clicking on the Live Media link at 2012nationals.collegesailing.org. The University of Texas will provide daily text and photo updates and Chris Love Productions will provide video highlights of the opening day of racing, with live streaming video coverage of the final two days, June 4-5. Video coverage presented by Maclaren.

*The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) is the governing authority for sailing competition at colleges and universities throughout the United States and in some parts of Canada. Visit www.collegesailing.org to learn more. The ICSA National Championships are sponsored by Sperry Top-Sider (www.sperrytopsider.com), Annapolis Performance Sailing (www.apsltd.com), Gill North America (www.gillna.com), and US SAILING (home.ussailing.org).