Yale Wins College Team Race Nationals

San Diego, CA (May 30, 2016) – Today was the third and final day of the LaserPerformance Team Race National Championship on North San Diego Bay, with Yale University winning the national championship and the Walter C. Wood Trophy for the fourth year in a row.

The day began with completing the top eight round robin. Racing got underway around 10:30 a.m. Competitors sailed in FJs on digital N courses for the top eight and final four rounds. The remaining 19 races were completed in the top eight round today. The conditions were cloudy with light winds to start the day from the west northwest and the winds picked up a bit in the afternoon around 12 knots under sunny skies. Temperatures stayed in the mid to high 60s.

The race officials kept the races going, and by about 2:30 p.m. the competitors were into the final four racing. The final four was completed around 3:30 p.m. and a total of 157 races were completed in the event.

Today the teams were fighting to advance into the final four round. Due to the competitiveness of each team in this event, no one went through undefeated. Yale finished the top eight round with two losses, Boston College with four, Georgetown University with one and St. Mary’s College of Maryland with three.

Going into the final four any one of the four teams had a chance at winning the regatta. However, after Yale won their second race against St. Mary’s, they clinched the regatta.

This is Yale’s fourth team race national championship title and Walter C. Wood Trophy win in a row. The last team to win four in a row was Tufts University in 1996.

“We are stoked,” says Bill Healy, assistant coach for Yale University. “Everyone sailed well and kept their heads on through the whole regatta. Every race was tough and all of the competition was really good. We were able to execute really well at the bottom mark on the course.”

Everyone on the Yale team will be returning next year, except for senior Charlotte Belling, who was on each of the four winning teams during her college sailing career.

The winning team members are Ian Barrows ’17, Meredith Megarry ’17, Malcolm Lamphere ’18, Chandler Gregoire ’17, Nicholas Baird ’19, Charlotte Belling ’16, Clara Robertson ’17 and Joseph Kiss ’17.

There were six total races scheduled in the final four, however, in the first race of the round between Georgetown and St. Mary’s, one of the tiller extensions in a St. Mary’s boat broke and they went from winning the race to losing it, so they were allowed a re-sail. Therefore, seven races took place and St. Mary’s took the win. This meant that they displaced Boston College and took third overall while Georgetown clenched second place after beating Yale in the last race of the final four.

“Yale was tremendous and the best team won,” says Mike Callahan, head coach for Georgetown. “We had a lot of opportunities in the races that we lost, but we didn’t do it. We did have the best record in the final four, and that felt good.”

Georgetown will graduate four seniors from their team race team this year.

Sailing for Georgetown was Sean Golden ’16, Isabelle Ruiz De Luzuriaga ’16, Nevin Snow ’16, Meaghan MacRae ’18, AJ Reiter ’17 and Bettina Redway ’16.

St. Mary’s, winning their re-sail with Georgetown, allowed them the last podium spot.

“We are really happy to be on the podium,” says Bill Ward, director of sailing for St. Mary’s. “All of our races were really close and we made some mistakes. It has been a long season and this was a good way to finish up considering where we came from.”

Sailing for St. Mary’s was Alexander Curtiss ’16, Shelby Jacobs ’17, Edmund Cooper ’17, Mariah Leffingwell ’16, Markus Edegran ’16 and Kaitlyn Noreen ’16.

Final Results
1. Yale University, 21-4
2. Georgetown University, 19-6
3. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 18-7
4. Boston College, 17-8
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5. College of Charleston, 15-7
6. Stanford University, 13-9
7. Dartmouth College, 11-11
8. Brown University, 8-14
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9. Old Dominion University, 8-7
10. U.S. Naval Academy, 7-8
11. University of California at Santa Barbara, 6-9
12. Eckerd College, 5-10
13. Texas A&M University at Galveston, 2-13
14. University of Michigan, 2-13
15. University of Wisconsin, 2-13
16. University of Washington, 0-15

Event details – Scoreboard – Photos – Livestream – Facebook

The final regatta in the College Sailing Spring Nationals, the Gill Coed National Championship, begins with two days of qualifying racing in the Semifinals (May 31-June 1) and continues with two more days of racing in the Finals (June 2-3).

Background: The Intercollegiate Sailing Association’s three spring national championships – Sperry Women’s National Semi-Final and Final Championship, LaserPerformance Team Race National Championship, and the Gill Coed Dinghy National Semi-Final and Final Championship – will be held May 24-June 3, with schools racing Club and Collegiate FJs on San Diego Bay in San Diego, CA. The three events will be co-hosted by San Diego Yacht Club and the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference.

Report by ISCA.