ST. MARY's CITY, Md. -- The Cornell sailing team placed second at the Women's Eastern National Semifinals on Wednesday afternoon, advancing to the two-day championship finals beginning on Thursday. The Big Red is in search of its first national title, and will be among 18 teams racing for the trophy.

Cornell's 91 points placed it behind only Stanford, who accumulated 69 points. The Big Red held off Boston College (98), Harvard (106) and Dartmouth (116), who rounded out the top five. Head coach Lior Lavie's team jumped into second place after three rounds of races and never looked back in reaching the finals easily. The ninth-place qualifier, Bowdoin, had 155 points.

The teams completed nine rounds over two days of racing, with B division placing first overall with five races with top three finishes and 37 cumulative points. Sophia Devling (races 1-8) and Gilda Dondona (race 9) were skippers with Sophia Mulvania (races 1-2), Sophia Pearce (races 3-6) and Amelia Neumann races 7-9) serving as crew.

A division wasn't far behind, as its 54 points placed it third in the division. Cornell had three top-four efforts, including a race win to kick off the sixth round. Bridget Green (races 1-8) and Winborne Majette (race 9) skippered the Big Red, with Neumann (races 1-2), Mulvania (races 3-8) and Kate Moran (race 9) serving as crew.