CASCADE LOCKS, Ore.–The Hobart and William Smith Colleges sailing team finished second yesterday in the Intercollegiate Sailing Association North American Team Race Championship. HWS finished with the same 11-6 record as the first place team from St. Mary's (Md.) College, but the Seahawks won the title based on a head-to-head victory over HWS on the final day of racing.

Representing the Colleges were skippers senior Ed Norton (Tabor Academy/Fair Haven, N.J.), senior John Pearce (Ithaca/Ithaca, N.Y.), and junior John Storck (St. Anthony's/Huntington, N.Y.) and crew senior Alexis Rubin (Edmund Burke/Potomac, Md.), sophomore Molly Lawson (Noble & Greenough School/Duxbury, Mass.), and sophomore Augusta Nadler (Tabor Academy/Marion, Mass.).

HWS finished the first day of sailing with a 5-1 record to earn a spot in the winner's round. On Monday during the second day of sailing, HWS posted a 6-1 record in the first round robin and a 4-3 record in the second round robin to take a regatta-best 10-4 mark into the final day of racing.

The round of four racing saw HWS defeat Dartmouth, but lose to St. Mary's and Southern California, slipping back into a tie with St. Mary's. It's the second time HWS has tied for first place in an ICSA Championship event but fell to second on a tie-breaker, squaring with Charleston in the 2002 Sloop North Americans.

The HWS sailing team has made 19 ICSA Championship appearances, posting nine top-five finishes, including four second place showings. HWS also finished second in the 2003-04 ICSA Sloop North Americans in December. The Colleges' sailing team will seek its first ICSA North American championship when the Dinghy North American Championships begin today in Cascade Locks.