Fighting fire with fire, or in this case water with water, Stanford women’s sailing will take its talents to Annapolis, MD this weekend for the Navy Spring Women’s Regatta. The Cardinal will face a season-high 17 opponents over the weekend, including the host, U.S. Naval Academy’s women Midshipmen.
This weekend’s regatta is the third women’s contest in which the Cardinal have competed this season, the first being Stanford’s own Bryson Women’s Regatta in Redwood City last month. The Cardinal dominated that competition, placing first with 114 points. The second place Cal Poly Mustangs, for comparison, finished with a much higher — and, in sailing, worse — 196 points.
After facing tougher competition in Charleston’s Phebe Corkran King Women’s Regatta, the Stanford women sunk to second place, falling to the George Washington University Colonials by a score of 67-58. The Colonials will once again sit between Stanford and victory this weekend, as the Cardinal women look for revenge in a field that also includes Yale and Charleston, whose co-ed squads are the only others to have topped Stanford this season.
Regardless of the end result, Stanford will face its biggest competition yet at the Navy Spring Women’s Regatta. Watch for the waters to run Cardinal red and white on Saturday and Sunday.
Meanwhile, back on the West Coast, the women’s rowing team will compete in their first of two scheduled dual regattas of the season, as they play host to the Oregon State Beavers at Redwood Shores. This is the first action that the team has seen since they claimed first place in the collegiate division at the Head of the Charles Invitational last October in Boston.
The women put up an incredibly dominant showing in the fall, competing not only against other college boats, but also against national teams. The women’s varsity eight completed the course in 16:58.098 to finish second overall to the U.S. Rowing national eight.
The women’s varsity four also placed second overall in the regatta, finishing with a time of 19:58.596. They dropped in the overall standings to DRV Potsdam, the German national team.
At the Head of the Charles, Stanford was head and shoulders over every other collegiate team present, including Yale, Berkeley, Syracuse and Princeton. Expect a similar dominance over Oregon State this weekend, as the Cardinal gear up to host East Coast powerhouses in the Pac-12 Invitational on March 30-31st.
Watch for the waters in Annapolis to run Cardinal red and white on both Saturday and Sunday, and the Beavers to be sunk in Redwood City starting at 9 a.m., also on Saturday.
Contact Holden Foreman at hs4man21 ‘at’ stanford.edu and Bobby Pragada at bpragada ‘at’ stanford.edu.