Over the weekend, Stanford sailing won both the Open Team Race Championship and the Open Conference Championship at the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference (PCCSC) Coed Championships. Earning two conference victories, the Cardinal qualified for the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Team Race National Championship in May.
The win marks the Cardinal’s second consecutive PCCSC Championship victory. Last season, Stanford won after going undefeated in the team races and also qualified for nationals. The program is now looking to improve upon last season’s performance in nationals, where they finished in fifth place.
Starting Friday at the Carter Ford PCCSC Open Team Race Championship, the Cardinal raced for a perfect 14-0 record. Fifth-years Jack Parkin and Stephanie Houck, senior Wiley Rogers and sophomore Hannah Freeman lined up as skippers, while seniors Sammy Pickell and Laurel Foster, juniors AnaClare Solé and Patricia Gerli and fifth-year Matthew Hogan joined them as crew.
Stanford dominated in the first round, defeating all nine schools competing before moving onto round one of the top four. There, the Cardinal went 3-0, including a victory over second-place finisher UC Santa Barbara, where Stanford sailors took both first and second place.
In round two of the top four, Stanford went 2-0 after earning first and second place finishes against UCLA and defeating Hawaii with a one, two, three sweep in the final round.
On Saturday, the Cardinal turned their efforts to the Mark Healy PCCSC Open Conference Championship. Stanford defeated 17 other teams, finishing with just 22 total points — 10 points better than the rest of the teams in the field. Sailors dominated 14 races across two divisions, finishing first in eight of them. The Cardinal left their competitors behind with a large margin of victory, as second place UC Santa Barbara finished with 32 points and third place Hawaii tallied 52.
Parkin and Pickell won Division A with only 10 points. The pair garnered a first-place finish in four races and came second in the other three. In Division B, Rogers and Sole came out on top with 12 points, finishing one point ahead of UC Santa Barbara’s 13. They also earned four first-place finishes, with their lowest finish coming in at fourth place.
With this weekend’s competition over and two more victories in the books, the Cardinal have cemented this spring season’s success. The team has finished on the podium in every event this spring, finishing first in six of 11 competitions this spring and second in four.
Parkin is a major contributor to the team’s continued success; he was named the PCCSC Sailor of the Year for the 2021-2022 season following the weekend’s events. He led the Cardinal to victory in the team races and was at the helm of the A Division boat in the open conference fleet races. Last season, Parkin raced in the same spot and served as skipper in the ICSA Team Race National Championship. Now, he is positioned to continue his leadership as Stanford races at nationals again.
Up next, Stanford sailing will look to continue its momentum in the PCCSC Women’s Championship, which begins April 16. The women’s team will split up to travel to Honolulu and Annapolis to compete.