Olympic sailing hopeful Jesse Kirkland helped his college, St. Mary's from Maryland, to second place in the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) National Championship Western semi-finals over the weekend.

The regatta is considered the second most important college sailing competition of the year and for the second consecutive year the action was dominated by schools from the US east coast.

From the 200-plus active racing programmes that compete under the auspices of ICSA, 36 schools were seeded, based on performance, into one of the two semi-final rounds of the ICSA/Gill Coed National Championship.

The ICSA National Championship Eastern semi-finals took place at College of Charleston (Charleston, South Carolina) and the ICSA National Championship Western semi-finals at the University of Washington (Seattle, Washington).

For the 18 schools competing at each location the stakes were high – only a top-nine finish would qualify them for the championship finals which will be hosted by the University of Wisconsin from May 25-June 3 in Madison, Wisconsin.

At the Western semi-finals in Seattle, light air on day one only allowed for the completion of four races – two each in A and B Division.

When racing wrapped up on day two, with ten races completed in both divisions, the points spread among the top three teams was a good indication of the close competition.

Yale won the event with 89 points while Kirkland's St. Mary's were second with 91 and Roger Williams third with 98.

"It was a great event," said ICSA President Mitch Brindley.

"On day two boats were getting to the weather mark overlapped, so it was exciting. Lots of boats were fighting for the spots, especially the battle for ninth."