Sailing Team Headed for National Regatta

By Chris Glennon

For the first time ever, the Santa Clara sailing team has advanced to nationals.

The team, created in 1987, finished in third place in the Patagonia Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference Women's Championship hosted by Stanford University two weekends ago. Their finish was good enough to qualify for the national regatta on May 21-24 in St. Petersburg, Fla.

"I could not be happier," said senior Captain Lindsay Grove. "It's been a goal of mine since I got to college."

It was a long and grueling day for the team (made up of Francesca Cappellini, Rachel Flanagan, Lindsay Grove, Katie Everett and Caroline Keig) as they competed in 16 separate races.

According to freshman Cappellini, the team was on the water from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. "It was so tiring," she said. "We did very well at the beginning, but tailed off toward the end. We didn't have enough water on the boat."

Although the team is considered a club on campus, there is no club sports division in college sailing, which forces the team to race against well-established varsity programs. Santa Clara finished behind Stanford and the University of Hawaii two weekends ago, both varsity programs.

The Sperry Top-Sider Intercollegiate Sailing Association Women's National Championship is the pinnacle of college sailing, and Santa Clara is one of 18 teams to have already qualified. Nine spots are still unfilled, in part due to the Boston Marathon bombings forcing the cancellation of regattas.

Santa Clara qualified for the national semifinals along with Hawaii, while Stanford locked up a spot in the finals thanks to their victory at their home regatta.  

Although this will be the team's first trip to nationals, the success shouldn't come as a surprise and is the result of a year's worth of hard work. 

"It's very satisfying to see hard work pay off," Grove said. "It's been a really great way to end my four years."

The national regatta will be a new test for the team, one that they are preparing for the best they can. Junior Rachel Flanagan said the team has been training hard and practicing as much as possible. 

"We hope to make a name for Santa Clara in college sailing," she said.

Cappellini said the team has been focusing a lot more on skipper to crew interactions recently. "We've been working together so we can get that down," she said. "So when the regatta comes we will know how each other move and work together better as a team."

She also noted that the team would be sure to bring enough water on board this time around. "It will be important to keep our stamina up and avoid getting dehydrated," Cappellini said. "Avoiding that and sunburn is key to being able to concentrate."

Santa Clara club sports had enough funding available to pay for each team members' flight.

"My parents were really happy about that," Cappellini said. "It's going to be really fun." 

Contact Chris Glennon at cglennon@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.