St. Mary's College Wins 2004 ICSA/Layline North American Team Race Championship

CASCADE LOCKS, ORE. (June 3, 2004) – The Seahawks of St. Mary’s College (St. Mary’s City, Md.), have won the 2004 ICSA/Layline North American Team Race Championship after three days of competition on the Columbia River. The Seahawks, who last won this title in 2000, posted an 11-6 win-loss record. Hobart/William Smith Colleges (Geneva, N.Y.), followed in second overall, also with an 11-6 record, while Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H.) placed third on their 10-7 record.

On the opening day of the championship, the Seahawks were undefeated in the Group A round robin into which they were seeded against Harvard University (the defending champions), Hobart/William Smith Colleges and the University of Wisconsin. In an 8-10 knot westerly breeze with light rain, St. Mary’s posted a perfect 6-0 record. They were the only one of the 14 competing schools to not loose at least one race.

Although the sunshine materialized for day two of racing, the westerly breeze continued to hover between 8-12 knots. After two qualification rounds, Harvard lost their chance to win their third consecutive team racing championship as only Dartmouth, Hobart/William Smith Colleges, St. Mary’s and the University of Southern California qualified for the final four which would determine the champions.

"This was a very satisfying event," said St. Mary’s coach Adam Werblow (St. Mary’s, Md.) explaining that last year the Seahawks narrowly lost this championship. They had beat Tufts in the final race of the "championship round" to advance to the final four, and appeared poised to score an upset in the final round. However, racing was abandoned as the breeze dwindled and the cutoff time to start the final race was reached. Without the final round robin completed, scores reverted to the records from the championship round robin of eight. With a 5-2 win-loss record in the races that counted, Harvard won, with St. Mary's taking second.

"Last year’s defeat was crushing," Werblow continued. "We were carrying that all year long and wanted a chance to control our own destiny. I’m really proud of this team’s performance in the Gorge. To win this year’s championship it all came down to the last two races, and the team sailed their best two races of the event when it was most needed."

St. Mary’s senior skippers Danny Pletsch (Sarasota, Fla.), Nick Ewenson (Newport , R.I.) and Jay Rhame (Highlands, N.J.) had the assistance of crew Jen Vandemoer (Centerville, Mass.) and Melissa Deveney (Frederick, Md.), both seniors; junior Paige Hannon (Ellicott City, Md.); along with Justin Law (Newport Beach, Calif.), Blake DeBoer (Chicago, Ill.) and Hilary Wiech (Annapolis, Md.), all freshman.

In the team racing championship, each school’s three-boat team competes in a round-robin series of matches with the best combined score determining the winner. Schools were seeded into two groups of seven teams and on day one each group completed a round-robin series with the top-four placing teams in each group progressing to a championship round robin. The remaining six teams would sail a consolation round. From the championship round of eight, the top four teams sail a double final four round robin to declare the champion.

Regional eliminations qualified fourteen teams to compete in the 2004 ICSA/Layline North American Team Race Championship: Brown University (Providence, R.I.), College of Charleston (Charleston, S.C.), Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H.), Eckerd College (St. Petersburg, Fla.), Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.), Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.), Hobart/William Smith Colleges (Geneva, N.Y.), St. Mary's College (St. Mary’s City, Md.), Texas A & M Galveston (Galveston, Texas), University of Hawaii (Honolulu, Hawaii), University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Mich.), University of Southern California (Los Angeles, Calif.), University of Washington (Seattle, Wash.), University of Wisconsin (Madison, Wis.).

The ICSA/Gill North American Coed Dinghy Championship is the final of the three spring championships. Racing runs from June 2-4 in FJs from Marine Park, where all of the racing in the Columbia River Gorge can be seen from shore. The Northwest Intercollegiate Sailing Association are hosting the championships which are being filmed by Windtopia – the windsports-focused media and entertainment company – who will package digital video, produced by T2Productions, for a show that will air on CSTV (College Sports TV) in July.

To learn more about ICSA, visit www.collegesailing.org. For additional information on the sponsors of these championships, please visit them online: www.gillna.com, www.layline.com, www.quantumsails.com, www.ronstan.com and www.teamvanguard.com. Full results and photos from all three championships are posted on the event website: http://www.collegesailing.org/nwicsa/na/