Melissa Pumphrey and Adrienne Patterson. 2007 ICSA Women's National Championship, sponsored by PENTAX Imaging Company and Vanguard Sailboats. Photo credit: GTSphotos.com.
ST. MARY'S CITY, Md. - The Lady Seahawks Sailing Team from St. Mary's College of Maryland (SMCM) won the 2007 Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Women's National Championship, in Norfolk, Virginia, on Friday, May 25. The event sponsored by PENTAX Imaging Company and Vanguard Sailboats, included three days of racing from the Old Dominion University Sailing Center. The Seahawks closed this event the way they opened it - at the top of the standings. Plus, SMCM's A-Division skipper, junior Adrienne Patterson (Newport Beach, Calif.), was named the 2007 Quantum Female Sailor of the Year.
Final Day of Racing - With 26 out of 36 planned races already completed, only four A- and six B-Division races were on the docket to conclude the final day of this three-day championship series. But while conditions were great for tanning, the wind was noticeably uncooperative in the mid-afternoon and it ultimately curtailed racing with 16 races counting for each division. Ranked number one nationally since March, St. Mary's displayed consistency on the water - posting only three double-digit finishes in 32 races. Today's efforts saw both their A- and B-Division teams win races 15 and 16, effectively eliminating any hope by second-placed College of Charleston (Charleston, S.C.) that they might overtake the Seahawks to retain the title they won last year on their home waters.
St. Mary's previous win of this championship was in 1995. They carry home the George C. Miller Trophy on 132 points - 62 chipped in by the A-Division team of Patterson and senior crew Melissa Pumphrey (Annapolis, Md.), and 70 points courtesy of freshman skipper Sara Morgan Watters (Oxford, Md.) and junior crew Mattie Farrar (Blaine, Wash.) in B-Division.
"For us the whole goal has been to keep banging out the fours and fives and be consistent to force our opponents to stay with us," said Adam Werblow, St. Mary's Varsity Sailing Coach. "We were basically down to one serious contender when we started the day, and as it wound up we had two back-to-back bullets that put huge pressure on the competition to take chances."
The College of Charleston (Charleston, S.C.), champions in 2006, finished second overall with 176 points - 110 points from their A-Division team of sophomore skipper Andrea Savage (Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich.) with crew junior Danielle Neri (Newport, R.I.) and freshman Rebecca Bestoso (Erie, Penn), and 66 points from B-Division freshman skipper Allie Blecher (Fullerton, Calif.) and crew freshman Christina Murray (Annapolis, Md.) and junior Julia Southworth (Marion, Mass.).
Stanford University (Palo Alto, Calif.) finished third overall with 204 points, followed by the U.S. Naval Academy (Annapolis, Md.) with 216 points. Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.) moved up to fifth overall on 219, dropping UC-Irvine (Irvine, Calif.) down a spot to sixth on 227 points.
Quantum Female College Sailor of the Year - Adrienne Patterson - Adrienne Patterson (Newport Beach, Calif.), has been named the 2007 Quantum Female College Sailor of the Year, an annual honor given to the female skipper who has compiled the best overall sailing record during the academic year. Patterson, the first Lady Seahawk to win the honor, also received ICSA All-American recognition for the second consecutive year.
"It's been a hell of a year for Patterson," said Coach Werblow. "She opened the year by dislocating her knee on the first day of practice, and because of her knee she did not do any single-handed racing. However, she dominated in the double-handed events, with distinctive wins at the Atlantic Coast Women's, the Stu Nelson Women's and the Dellenbaugh Women's Trophy."
Patterson learned to sail at age five at Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club (Corona Del Mar, Calif.), and by high school she was racing for the competitive team from Newport Harbor Yacht Club (Balboa, Calif.), and always with her parents in the spectator fleet. This spring her dad, Jim, has been traveling alone from California to watch Patterson compete - her mom, Melanie, died on December 20.
"Every regatta since my mom passed away, I've been under control, able to look at the bigger picture and control my emotions," said Patterson. "It's kind of a new thing for me - to be a little kinder to my-self, while still pushing. So [coming into this championship] my attitude was different, I was not nerv-ous, I was confident in my crew and comfortable in the conditions."
A junior majoring in Human Studies with plans to become a teacher - after she completes her senior year and gets her masters from St. Mary's - Patterson will spend this summer working at Larchmont Yacht Club (Larchmont, N.Y.) It will be her first summer coaching sailing on the East Coast. As for any competitive sailing plans beyond her senior year at St. Mary's, she is considering racing in the 2008 Olympic Trials, both as a way to gain experience and test the water for a possible double-handed campaign aimed at the 2012 Games in London.
Look for complete results and photos at: http://collegesailing.org/nas/spring07/womens/
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