Day 1 Report

The Old Dominion Monarchs finished the first day of the 2002 Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Women’s NAs in Honolulu, Hawaii, in first place out of 18 teams with an overall score of 45 points. In A division, senior skipper Sally Barkow, of Nashotah, Wis., teamed with sophomore crew Cara Gibbons-Neff, of Annapolis, Md., for four races and junior crew Debbie Capozzi, of Bayport, N.Y., for two. Their total score of 31 points places them third in A division. And leading B division for Old Dominion with a score of only 14 points was skipper Corrie Clement, of Metarie, La., with crews Anna Tunnicliffe, of Perrysville, Oh., and Liz Bower, of Rochester, N.Y.

“It was about staying in the breeze,” said Clement. “You could see the shifts coming down the course, and it was kind of like playing connect the dots.” Clement said that having good communications with Tunnicliffe and Bower was a great boost to their performance.

The Monarch’s closest competition in B division was the host and defending champ, the University of Hawaii Rainbows, with 28 points. Sophomores Renee Decurtis, of Redondo Beach, Calif., and Jennifer Warnock, of San Diego, Calif., skippered, while senior Melody Torres, of Bakersfield, Calif., and sophomore Lindsay Peters, of Fargo, N.D., crewed.

For the second year in a row, University of Hawaii senior Molly O’Bryan, of San Diego, Calif., and junior Sarah Hitchcock, of South Dartmouth, Mass., both returning All-Americans, are leading A division with 26 points. The Rainbows are in second place overall with 54 points, nine points behind Old Dominion University’s overall score of 45 and are in a good position to repeat last year’s top performance.

Six races (of a schedule 18) were sailed in each division, beginning in five knot southerly thermal winds which lasted until about 3:30 p.m. when northeast tradewinds filled in, topping out at 15 knots. Air and water temperature was 80 degrees in the waters of the Keehi Lagoon venue on the south shore of Oahu. The event is being run out of the Honolulu Community College Marine Education and Training Center. 14 more races will be held in each division between Thursday and Friday.

Full day one results are available at the ICSA Web Site: www.collegesailing.org