LADY MONARCH SAILORS COMPETE FOR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Old Dominion University women's sailing team will travel to Charleston, S.C., to compete on the Cooper River in the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Women's Dinghy National Championships, May 24-26.

ODU has won 15 national championships overall since 1982. The Lady Monarchs have captured three championships in the women's dinghy class, with the most recent title won in in 2002 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Sailing for the Lady Monarchs will be Cara DiSAnti with Alissa Ayers in the A Division and Mo Castruccio with Elyssa Albert in the B Division. Alternates will be Jaci Finney and Jenica Ryan. ODU ranked 15th nationally and qualified by finishing fifth at the MAISA District Championships.

"We have a strong team with experience," said head coach Mitch Brindley. "Castruccio has a solid shot to win B Division. We have been just short of the mark much of the year, but these championships could be a real breakthrough for the team. We have spent a lot of time sailing in Charleston with this team over the last two years, and we had a great week of practice in preparation for this."

Competing in the championships with ODU are Boston College, College of Charleston, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Harvard, Hobart-William Smith, St. Mary's College (Md.), Stanford, the University of Texas, Tufts, University of Hawaii, University of Michigan, South Florida, the University of Washington, Wisconsin, Navy, and Yale.

The ICSA brings together sailors representing seven North American conferences to compete in three distinctive events. Weather permitting, each division sails eighteen 20- to 30-minute fleet races over three days for a total of 36 races. A team's final score is determined by the combined results of its sailors in A and B divisions.