Eagles Successfully Defend Championship Title

San Francisco, Calif. The Boston College Sailing Team has won the 2009 ICSA/APS Team Race National Championship, successfully defending the title won a year ago on Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay, marking the third collegiate sailing national title the Eagles have won in school history.

The Boston College Sailing Team has won the 2009 ICSA/APS Team Race National Championship, successfully defending the title won a year ago on Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay, marking the third collegiate sailing national title the Eagles have won in school history.

Victorious Boston College Sailing Team “2009 ICSA/APS Team Race National Championship” and credit to GTSphotos.com

For three days, the top 14 schools in the nation – as determined by their performance in one of the seven Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association conferences to which they belong – raced for the championship title from the Treasure Island Sailing Center hosted by California Maritime Academy and the University of California, Berkeley. The event pits each college's three-boat team against another's in a round-robin series of matches and starts with the 14 teams divided into two groups. The top four finishers from Group 1 and 2 move on to the “elite eight” (a.k.a. the Gold Round), before the “final four” to determine the champion.

In Group 1, Georgetown University’s win of the first race of the event started the Hoyas on a winning streak which saw them conclude round one undefeated. Also moving on to the next round from Group 1 were College of Charleston, Harvard University and Yale University, all with 4-2 records.

Racing in Group 2 got really interesting on the second day of competition after St. Mary’s College (6-0) and Boston College (5-1) qualified to move on while Stanford University, University of South Florida and SUNY Maritime College went into triple overtime to break a three-way tie. Ultimately, while USF lost the battle and Stanford and SUNY moved on to race in the elite eight, USF would go on to win the consolation round with a 5-0 record.

By the conclusion of the Gold Round only BC, St. Mary’s, Georgetown and Yale remained in contention for the title. And when the dust settled, the 13-4 record amassed by the BC Eagles had won them the title. (Final standings for the final four: St. Mary’s 12-6, Georgetown 10-7 and Yale 9-8.) Complete results are available at: http://www.collegesailing.org/nas/spring09/teamraceresults.asp

Senior skippers Brian Kamilar (Miami, Fla.) and Adam Roberts (San Diego, Calif.) sailed every race for the Eagles, while Taylor Canfield (St. Thomas, USVI) ‘11, Parker Dwyer (Stuart, Fla.) ’09 and Tyler Sinks (San Diego, Calif.) ’11 split up the skipper duties in BC’s third boat. Crewing were seniors Carrie Amarante (Wayne, N.J.), Lauren Gilloly (Wyckoff, N.J.) and Andrew Schneider (Newport, R.I.), juniors Evan Cooke (Andover, Mass.), Christian Manchester (Barrington, R.I.) and Sandy Williams (Chicago, Ill.), and sophomore Danny Bloomstine (Erie, Penn.).

Up Next: The centerpiece of the three Intercollegiate Sailing Association national championships, the ICSA/Gill National Championship will be held June 1-3, hosted by Stanford University and St. Francis Yacht Club, with racing taking place from the club.

About 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. 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