15th Ranked Vermont Catamounts Sailing Team Head to the ICSA Semifinals for the National Championship.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT:
Justin Assad
Head Coach
University of Vermont Sailing Team
m: 917.846.6852
em: jassad@uvm.edu
w: www.uvm.edu/sailing

15th Ranked Vermont Catamounts Sailing Team Head to the ICSA Semifinals for the National Championship.

Burlington, VT – For the second year in a row, the University of Vermont Sailing Team is headed to the 2009 ICSA Semifinal Regatta for the National Championship this weekend in Boston, MA. The Cats have put together a strong spring, capped by their recent 6th place finish at the New England Coed Dinghy Championship hosted by Boston College, led by Seniors Tyler Baeder, Christine Bletzer and Molly Doyle in A Fleet and Junior Clinton Hayes with Freshmen Ellie O’Brien and Laura Walsh-Rogalski in B Fleet.

This year’s semifinals feature two 18 division fleets in action off of the Fan Pier in Boston, MA, right in the heart of the Volvo Ocean Race Stopover. The venue will provide excellent spectating, and the Catamounts will rely on the excellent pit crew of alternates Coleman Bowen 11, Theo Ingram 09, and Derrick Deming 09 to keep them going fast. From the two 18 team fleets, the top 9 in each fleet will advance to the National Championship Finals Regatta, hosted at the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco, CA, by Stanford University.

The Cats enter the Semifinals after a successful weekend in New England and a reappearance at 15th in the National Rankings. In addition to victories at the Staake Trophy Team Race and the Priddy Trophy for the New England Single Division Freshman Championship, the Catamounts hosted the Women’s New England Championship in Burlington, VT. With the generous assistance and facilities of the Community Sailing Center, UVM successfully hosted their first major spring dinghy championship, and in doing so established Lake Champlain as a viable spring championship site.

In the wake of a fall season cut short by a disciplinary incident, the Catamounts had fallen out of the National Rankings, and have worked all spring to reestablish the important team balance between race focus and fun that makes us unique as the UVM Sailing Team. Though it has been a rough road, we enter the National Semifinals with the full support of our teammates and ready to compete for a trip to San Francisco!

Event Information: ICSA Semifinal Website
Live Coverage: Sailgroove