ANNAPOLIS, Mc. - The second-ranked College of Charleston coed sailing team qualified for the ICSA Coed National Championship with a fourth-place finish at the ICSA Eastern Semifinals regatta hosted by the U.S. Naval Academy over the weekend on the Severn River at the Robert Crown Center.

The Cougars were among the top nine schools to qualify for the Gill/ICSA Coed National Championship Finals on June 6-8 in Austin, Texas. They compiled 156 points behind No. 1 Georgetown (120), No. 6 Roger Williams (135) and No. 3 Stanford (136).

CofC placed second in A-Division with 68 points, two points shy of first, behind the team work of junior All-American skipper Mac Mace (Newport Beach, Calif.) in races 1-4 and 9-12 and senior skipper Sam Stokes (Norfolk, Va.) in races 5-8 and 13-14 and senior All-American crew Perry Emsiek (Corona del Mar, Calif.).

In B-Division, the Cougars finished seventh with 88 points using the rotation of junior skipper Ben Spector (Santa Clarita, Calif.) and senior All-American crew Alyssa Aitken (Sandwich, Mass.) in races 1-4 and 11-14, junior skipper Chris Banholzer (Hartland, Wis.) and freshman crew Ali Blumenthal (Bellport, N.Y.) in races 5-6 and senior All-American skipper Zeke Horowitz (Sarasota, Fla.) and junior crew Cory DeCollibus (Duxbury, Mass.) in races 7-10.

CofC will next compete at nationals in not only the coed competition, but the ICSA Team Race National Championship as the No. 2-ranked team race squad in the nation on June 3-5 on Lake Travis in Austin, Texas.