US Sailing selects 2011 Youth Worlds Team

by Jake Fish, US Sailing 1 Feb 2011 21:30 GMT 7-11 July 2011

Twelve youth sailors have qualified for US SAILING’s 2011 Youth World Team, and will receive invitations to represent the United States at the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Youth World Championship in Zadar, Croatia, from July 7-11, 2011. Eight of these athletes were selected based on first-place finishes in their respective classes at the 2011 US SAILING ISAF Youth World Qualifier at the Houston Yacht Club, in La Porte, Texas, while the boards and multihull team members were chosen by resume and did not compete at the Youth World Qualifier.

The members of US SAILING’s 2011 Youth World Team are:

Laser Radial (boy’s one person dinghy): Mitchell Kiss (Holland, Mich.)
Laser Radial (girl’s one person dinghy): Erika Reineke (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
International 420s (boy’s two person dinghy): Reinier Eenkema van Dijk (Mamaroneck, N.Y.) and Spencer McDonough (Greenwich, Conn.)
International 420s (girl’s two person dinghy): Morgan Kiss (Holland, Mich.) and Christina Lewis (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
29er (open high performance dinghy): Antoine Screve (Ross, Calif.) and Mac Agnese (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
RS:X (boy's and girl's windsurfer): Ian Stokes (Norfolk, Va.) and Margot Samson (Clearwater, Fla.)
Multihull: Taylor Reiss and Matthew Whitehead (both Panama City, Fla.)

“We have a very strong team with some returning representatives,” said High Performance Director/Head Coach Kenneth Andreasen (Tampa, Fla.). “At the Trials, the competitors were challenged with a range in conditions. Each class winner truly put in a strong performance and are worthy of taking on the best in the world this summer at the ISAF Youth Worlds.”

The 2011 team comes with an impressive string of trophies and experience: At last week’s US SAILING’s Rolex Miami OCR, Erika Reineke finished an impressive 20th out of 54 in the Laser Radial among a strong international fleet. She won the 2010 Laser Radial Youth Worlds in Largs, Scotland and a bronze medal at the 2010 ISAF Youth Worlds in Turkey. At December’s Orange Bowl Regatta in Miami, Antoine Screve and Mac Agnese won the 104-boat International 420 class.

Reineke, Lewis, Screve, Agnese, and the Kiss siblings are also members of the 2011 US Sailing Development Team (USSDT), which includes young sailors identified as Olympic hopefuls in the Laser, Laser Radial, Finn, I420, 470, 29er and 49er classes. For more information about the USSDT, please visit the team page.

Hosted by the Houston Yacht Club, the US SAILING ISAF Youth World Qualifier was a competitive regatta for 70 athletes in three events. Open to athletes born in 1992 or after, the event consisted of 10 races over three days.

“Houston Yacht Club did a wonderful job hosting the event,” said Andreasen. “The club’s volunteers and staff are first-rate and always offer wonderful hospitality to competitors.”

For complete results from the Youth World Qualifier, please visit Houston Yacht Club’s web site.

For more information about the 2011 ISAF World Championship in Zadar, Croatia, please visit the event web site.