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CHARLESTON, S.C. - The College of Charleston sailing team climbed to No. 1 in the latest Sail1Design College Sailing Team Race Rankings released on Friday.
The Cougars are considered to be a "final four contender at the big race" by the national voting panel in preview of the upcoming ICSA Team Race National Championship on June 3-5 on Lake Travis in Austin, Texas. They were previously ranked No. 2 in the country in the April 26 poll.
CofC is ranked ahead of No. 2 Boston College, No. 3 Stanford, No. 4 Georgetown, No. 5 Hobart and William Smith, No. 6 Roger Williams, No. 7 St. Mary's College of Maryland, No. 8 Brown, No. 9 Yale, No. 10 Tufts, No. 11 U.S. Naval Academy, No. 12 Wisconsin, No. 13 Harvard, No. 14 Miami (Fla.), No. 15 Dartmouth, No. 16 MIT, No. 17 Old Dominion and No. 18 South Florida.
After two weeks off from competition, the Cougars are ready to get back into action this weekend at the ICSA National Western and Eastern Semifinals hosted by Navy on May 12-13 at the Robert Crown Center in Annapolis, Md.
The regatta is divided into two fleets, Eastern and Western, each comprised of a mix of the top 18 schools in the country, representative of the seven collegiate sailing conferences in the nation: New England, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest, Pacific Coast and Northwest. The top nine schools in each fleet will qualify for the Gill/ICSA Coed National Championship Finals on June 6-8 in Austin, Texas. The final team in each fleet to qualify will be awarded the U.S. Sailing GRIT Award.
The Cougars will sail junior All-American skipper Mac Mace (Newport Beach, Calif.) and senior All-American crew Perry Emsiek (Corona del Mar, Calif.) in A-Division, junior skipper Ben Spector (Santa Clarita, Calif.) and senior All-American crew Alyssa Aitken (Sandwich, Mass.) on Saturday in B-Division and senior All-American skipper Zeke Horowitz (Sarasota, Fla.) and junior crew Cory DeCollibus (Duxbury, Mass.) on Sunday in B-Division. Senior Sam Stokes (Norfolk, Va.) will serve as an alternate in A-Division and freshman Chris Sands (Nassau, Bahamas), freshman Ali Blumenthal (Bellport, N.Y.) and junior Brooks Clark (Newport Beach, Calif.) as alternates in B-Division.
For additional regatta information, competitors and live results, please visit the event's website at: http://2012semis.collegesailing.org/ or follow the action live on the ICSA Twitter Feed: @collegesailing.
