Tough Weather Conditions Force Cancellation of Women's Sailing National Semifinals

HANOVER, NH - Once again the weather failed to cooperate with the women sailors at the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association National Semifinals and as a result, the Dartmouth women's sailing team was knocked out of contention for nationals.

It was the second straight day that the weather on Lake Mendota failed to help the boats and crews as the race was also postponed on Tuesday because of little wind.

With no racing completed, the original qualification formula now comes into play: performance at their conference championship will determine the nine teams who are moving on to face the nine who had a bye in this round. Therefore, the nine higher-ranked teams (based on qualifying position) out of the 18 semifinal teams move on uncontested. Unfortunately, that means that since Dartmouth qualified in seventh place out of New England region, the Big Green does not move on. The top nine semifinal seeds and the nine teams that qualified directly to the finals will race for the next two days for nationals.

"The team is very disappointed since we looked good and were hoping for a high finish at nationals and felt that we could have been a top-five team in the finals," said co-head coach John Pearce. "However, in the sport of sailing the wind dictates everything, and it is occasionally possible for the conditions to be either too light or too windy to sail. It rarely happens for a whole regatta, but unfortunately it came at the worst possible time for us as a team."

The careers of senior Becca Dellenbaugh (Easton, Conn.) and senior Steph Gagnon (Westerly, R.I.) have come to an end, the pair has been the stars of women's team for four years and with their success this year as an A division skipper and B division crew, respectively, the team awaits the word on All-America status for the two leaders this week.

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