National Finals Information

PHILADELPHIA - The University of Pennsylvania sailing club has qualified for the ICSA Nationals by placing fifth at the Eastern Semifinal, which was held two weeks ago at Hobart/William Smith College in upstate New York (the Western Semifinal was held at USC).

Both the Eastern and Western regattas had 18 teams compete, with nine teams from each advancing to the National Finals, which will be held May 26-June 4 in Newport, R.I., considered the capital of United States Sailing and the site of past America's Cup challenges.

As with March Madness in basketball, teams can be sent to other regions to keep the competition balanced. Click here for information from the Eastern Regional.

Penn is currently the 17th-ranked team in the country (counting both varsity and club), and for the last two years the Quakers have been among the top three club teams in the nation -- currently, they are ranked second in the country behind Boston University. The full rankings can be found here; you will notice that the rankings do not differentiate between club and varsity teams.

Penn sailing has been competing at the top level of the sport for the last five years, with seniors Bryce Lefort, Garth Fasano and three-time national junior sailing champion Pat Curran at the helm. Throughout the club's history at Penn, it has achieved much success -- in the 1970s, when the men's basketball team was making news by winning Ivy titles and reaching the Final Four, sailors like Bryce's father Jack Lefort, Jr, and 12-time national champion Cory Fischer Sertl were competing with success against powerhouse teams like Navy, the Merchant Marine Academy, Yale and Harvard. Penn still competes against these teams, and two years ago won the Ivy League championship against the other seven schools, five of which were ranked in the top 20.

Over the past two seasons, the team has consistently been ranked among the top 25 teams in the nation. This year, Penn finished third in the Ivies, missing the championship -- won by Yale -- by only 19 points. Full results can be seen by clicking here. At the time, Penn was ranked 15th nationally, while Yale was third and Brown was sixth.

This is a very exciting time for Penn sailing! More information on the sailing club can be found by clicking on the Penn sailing website.