×
×
homepage logo

Rainbow Wahine Place 15th At ICSA National Semifinals

By Staff | May 21, 2024

BOSTON – The University of Hawai’i Rainbow Wahine sailing team made its return to Boston’s Charles River this week where the team captured the 2001 national championship. However, the Rainbow Wahine were unable to replicate the magic of that title run of more than two decades ago with a 15th-place finish in the ICSA Women’s National Championship Semifinals.

UH entered the second day of semifinal sailing in 15th and were unable to make up the necessary ground to finish in the top nine and advance to the final two days of competition. The Rainbow Wahine faced a steep hill already at 120 points off the pace and Tuesday’s weather didn’t help with the teams grounded for the majority of the day due to lack of wind. Unlike Monday’s conditions, where the teams got in 12 rotations, just five were completed on Tuesday as racing didn’t begin until mid afternoon.

The ‘Bows finished with 459 total points in 34 overall races over two days. Mercy Tangredi, Martha Schuessler, and Morgan Carew amassed 242 points, good for 16th in the A division. The team had a strong start on the second day with a sixth-place finish in the first race, but couldn’t top that display in the remaining races.

Meanwhile, Vivian Bonsager, Anna Kalabukhova and Peyton Lieser concluded with 217 points to place 14th in the B division. The B squad had two top-nine finishes during the semifinals, including a fourth-place showing in the final race of day one.

Yale won the Western Semifinal with a low of 132 points. Defending national champions Stanford cruised to first in the other semifinal. Those two teams lead a pack of 18 schools who will move on to the finals that will take place on Wednesday and Thursday.

It’s now been more than a decade since the Rainbow Wahine have broken through to the finals, but they still continued their string of excellence by making their third straight nationals and 21st overall. UH sailing is not yet done in Boston, as the coed team takes to the waters this Friday when the Open Fleet Racing Championship Semifinals begin.