Stearns Captures Second at Regatta

Harvard sailers definitely made their presence felt this past weekend.

Senior Laura Stearns stole the show, however.

Competing at the 1997-98 Women's Single-Handed National Championship against some of the nations' best, Stearns claimed an impressive second-place finish with 76 points. The one woman that took the title away from Stearns was the two-time defending champion from St. Mary's, Danielle Brennen.

The Coast Guard Academy site presented the sailers with an Olympic course for the 12-race competition. Sailing under nearly ideal conditions on Saturday, Georgetown's Liz Brent broke out by winning four of the day's seven races. Brennen remained close at her heels, finishing no worse than third in all her races.

Thus with the championship title still up for grabs going into the final day of competition, the sailers were met with unpredictable conditions and a dying northeasterly.

Dartmouth's Casey Hogan put up a good fight that day, taking first place in three of the five races. Brennen's solid performance the day before, however, was too much. After finishing with two thirds, a second, a ninth and an 11th-place finish on that final day, Brennen walked away with her third straight Single-Handed National Championship.

Stearns' consistency throughout the two-day event earned her the second-place nod as she was able to outpace Hogan who finished a close third.

Freshman Invitational Regatta

On more local waters, numerous Harvard sailers were creating waves of their own at the Freshman Invitational held at the Harvard Sailing Center on Sunday.

Although as a team Harvard finished sixth out of nine teams--beating only MIT, Boston University and Bowdoin--Erik Bernstein and his crew, Chris Lange were winners in the B-Division.