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Jan. 7, 2007 Among 27 college teams
from across the country, St. Mary's skippers Justin Law and Adrienne
Patterson, both Southern California natives, won the college A and B
divisions, respectively, with Meredith Nordhem and
Melissa Pumphrey as crew. Their combined scores led
host USC by 31 to 55 points, followed by the College of Charleston (S.C.) at
66, one point ahead of defending champion Patterson, who grew up
sailing with Law in "My mother just
passed away on Dec. 20," Patterson said. "She was my biggest
supporter. It was wonderful to go out and show her we could beat the boys,
like she always said we could." Point Loma topped a
fleet of 57 high schools to reclaim the title it lost to Newport Harbor last
year, also sweeping the A and B divisions of the Gold fleet behind skippers
Tyler Sinks and Caleb Paine, with Shone Bowman and Reece Bernet
as crew. For some consolation, The largest combined
college and high school regatta in the nation was organized and conducted by
the US Sailing Center of Long Beach and Alamitos
Bay Yacht Club. More than 400 sailors sailed two-person CFJ dinghies, dealing
with windless delays while rotating boats off the beach every two races. As many as 14 races
were planned for each of the three fleets, but the best the race committee
could manage was three each day. It was especially frustrating with zephyrs
of 3 knots and less Sunday, then even those gasped their last to force the
end of all racing at 3 p.m. But apparently it
bothered St. Mary's and Point Loma less than some of their rivals. "You can't look
at it that way," St. Mary's coach Adam Werblow
said. "You have to look at it as exciting and upbeat, while everybody
else is bummed out." Law said, "It
comes down to boat handling with finesse and being aggressive at times and
very still at other times." Point Loma came in on
a roll. Coach Steve Hunt had just won US Sailing's prestigious Champion of
Champions title with Alan Field in "Our kids sailed
conservatively, intelligently and fast," Hunt said. "Our main goal
was to avoid the letters---OCS and DSQ." Translation: no early
starts and no disqualifying fouls. "It was a big
team effort," Hunt said. "Our kids talked to each other a lot on
the beach." All of the high school
teams are members of the Pacific Coast Interscholastic Sailing Association ( Complete
results at www.pcisa.org Photos at www.abyc.org MORE INFORMATION (562) 433-7939 Rich Roberts Press Officer (310) 835-2526 |
High-resolution photos
available free to print media on request |
