The Stanford women’s sailing team has concluded their first event at the Intercollegiate Sailing Association’s National Championships in Newport, R.I. The team wrapped up the third and final day of sailing with a respectable fourth place finish in the ICSA Women’s Championship. The field consisted of 18 top-tier teams from around the country, with Boston College taking home the crown.

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(This photo was taken in Redwood City, CA) The Stanford Sailing Team will be competing at Nationals in Rhode Island for the next two weeks. #gallery http://daily.stanford.org/image/full/9295
Jeff Keacher

(This photo was taken in Redwood City, CA) The Stanford Sailing Team will be competing at Nationals in Rhode Island for the next two weeks.

Only six teams can say they qualified for all three of the national events: the Women’s Championship, the Team Racing Championship and the Coed Dinghy Championship; the No. 13 Cardinal is among them. This is only the team’s second time qualifying in all three events during head coach Jay Kehoe’s tenure at Stanford.

The women’s team was ranked fourth going into the competition and came out as just that. Leading the Cardinal in its fight was the A-team of senior All-American Evan Brown, junior All-American Kelly McKenna and freshman Hannah Burroughs, which placed third. The Brown and McKenna pair made up the A-team last year as well, when the Cardinal placed a respectable third at nationals.

“This year’s fleet was more competitive and the conditions were tougher, and we are still very proud of placing third again,” McKenna said.

The B-team consisted of junior Taylor Grimes and senior Sarah Schoknecht.

After the first day of racing, the Cardinal was not where it had hoped to be. Facing tough weather conditions and a disqualification for a complicated foul, the women found themselves in ninth place at the conclusion of day one.

Day two brought more wind, but the women were tough and fought their way to a fifth place standing. Going into the final day, the Cardinal jumped even further. The team sat outside the top five for the majority of the event, but improved to fourth on the regatta.

“I’m extremely proud of how the girls battled back from a [disqualification] and a capsize to climb back to fourth place in the regatta,” coach Kehoe told GoStanford.com after the competition. “That kind of comeback is unheard of and shows the strength of this team.”

Brown, one of the Cardinal’s two graduating seniors, was named as a women’s All-American skipper for the second consecutive year, after being named an honorable mention her sophomore year.

“I don’t think there’s much we could have done better,” McKenna said. “Coming back from 9th is extremely difficult in events like this. It’s much easier to lose hope after a rough day and we really came together as a team.

“Both divisions fought hard to climb back to the top. It’s really a good feeling to come together as a team like that at the end of a long season.”

Next up for the Cardinal is the three-day ICSA/APS Team Racing National Championship, which kicks off on May 30. The Cardinal looks to carry the momentum through this team event and then into the ICSA Coed Dinghy Championship.

The two final events take place May 30-June 1 and June 2-4, respectively. Next year, Stanford will be hosting the 2009 ICSA Women’s and Dinghy Nationals at the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco.