College Sailing: Fall Season Update

Chris Klevan provides this week’s update on activity in the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA).

#13 Dartmouth College won the St. Mary’s Fall Interconference with impressive performances in both divisions. Sailed at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, the event marked the second major intersectional for MAISA (Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association) as the fall season is now in full swing.

Many of the nation’s top teams were in attendance and the fleets were mostly filled with college sailing veterans. Dartmouth was one such team, sporting a tandem in A and B-Divisions that may be the Big Green’s top squad.

“The racing was tricky, with pressure filling from the edges and many of the common moves toward consolidating and centering up not as beneficial as normal,” said Dartmouth’s head coach, Justin Assad. “Our team was able to start cleanly most of the time, and focused on being patient and balanced sailing the long tack with finding the next pressure.”

Dartmouth’s Christopher ‘19 and Duncan Williford ‘18 sailed A and B, respectively, with crews Rebecca McElvain ‘19 and Paige Clarke ‘20. The Williford brothers and crews represented the Big Green well, combining for only 3 races outside the top-10. They finished 2nd in both A and B-Division, winning the regatta over MAISA up-and-comer, #14 George Washington.

Assad continued, “Duncan and Christopher are unique young men, and the overwhelmingly positive relationship they share is infectious for our entire team. They could trick you with their mellow and relaxed demeanor, but Duncan is an elected team leader and has a great attitude, and Christopher is a ferocious competitor. They enjoy pushing each other and love to compete, whether it is winning practice starts or a quick game of pick-up basketball before lift, which leads to a successful dynamic when representing Dartmouth, as well as pushing the whole team to mirror their spirit of fun competition.”

The George Washington Colonials’ runner-up finish was led by senior, Kai Friesecke and sophomore Andreea Rainey-Pace. The A-Division boat finished the regatta with no races outside the top-9, winning A-Division over aforementioned Big Green by 10 points.

#1 Georgetown’s Andy Reiter ‘19 and Claire Mohun ‘19 won B-Division with 45 points after 11 races sailed. The Hoya Juniors were impressive over the two days finishing 9 of the 11 races inside the top-5.

The #9 Navy Midshipmen finished 3rd overall, with 143 points in the 22 races sailed.
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The Men’s Singlehanded conference championships were sailed in South Atlantic (SAISA), Northwest (NWICSA) and New England (NEISA) this past weekend, while the Women’s Singlehanded conference championships were sailed in the Mid Atlantic (MAISA), New England (NEISA) and Northwest (NWICSA). Each of these six regattas qualified individuals for the both the Men’s and the Women’s ICSA Singlehanded National Championship which wll be held November 4-5 in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The SAISA Men’s Singlehanded Championship featured sailors from College of Charleston, Jacksonville University, and the University of South Florida. Three of the 10 sailors competing would move on to the National Championship. Finishing first, with an impressive 15 points after 10 races, was College of Charleston’s senior Stefano Peschiera. Runner up was a freshman from Jacksonville, Gage Wilson. Capturing the 3rd and final qualifying spot was Gerald Williams ‘19 from the College of Charleston.

The NEISA Men’s Singlehanded Championship featured sailors from 14 different schools. Four of the 27 boats entered would qualify for the Men’s National Championship, making it the most competitive qualifier, simply by percentage of qualifiers, featured on the ICSA schedule. Yale’s Nicholas Baird ‘19 finished 1st overall with 44 points after 10 races. Last year’s national champion, Scott Rasmussen of Boston College (‘20), finished second overall with 50 points. Tied with Rasmussen, but finishing 3rd, was 2015 ICSA National Champion Malcolm Lamphere ‘18 of Yale. Alp Rodopman ‘17 of Tufts, finished 4th, rounding out the NEISA qualifiers.

University of British Columbia freshman Benjamin McMaster was the lone qualifier from the NWICSA Men’s Singlehanded Championship held by Washington. Totaling 18 points after 8 races, the youngster won the seven boat regatta with consistency. Congratulations and good luck to all the men’s qualifiers.

Three Georgetown Women qualify for the Women’s singlehanded national championship after the Faye Bennett – MAISA Women’s Singles. Lola Bushnell (’18) was extremely solid in winning the 18-boat regatta with 37 points in 10 races. Finishing second, 11 points behind Bushnell, was Lenox Butcher (‘20) of UPenn. Finishing 3rd was Riley Legault (‘19) of George Washington University with 55 points. Tied with 56 points for the final two qualifying spots were two Hoya Ladies, Carly Broussard (‘21) and 2015 National Champion Haddon Hughes (‘19).

Washington University senior Laura Smit was the lone qualifier from the NWICSA Women’s Singlehanded Championship. Smit won the final 4 races to edge teammate, Farzanan Mohamedali. With 13 points after 7 races, finishing strong was obviously the key to winning the six boat regatta.

Coast Guard Academy senior Dana Rohde won the NEISA Women’s Singlehanded Championship despite not winning a single race. Rohde, after a slow start, showed how consistency wins regattas by finishing inside the top-4 in 6 of the last 7 races of the 17 boat regatta. An extremely tight regatta, only 8 points separated Rohde from the 5th and final qualifying spot. Talia Toland (‘21) of Tufts, Anna Weis (‘20) of Boston University, Lindsey Baab (‘18) of Brown, and Sophia Reineke (‘21) of Boston College finished 2nd through 5th respectively.
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#11 Stanford won the 2017 PCCSC (Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference) Match Race Championship in a sail-off with University of California Santa Barbara. The Cardinal and the Gauchos squared off on the match race/team race circuit of the PCCSC in what appears to be a budding rivalry. Stanford, the long standing champion of the conference, has found competition at conference championships over the past year. Stanford was the lone qualifier for the Match Race National Championship to be held November 10-12 in Charleston, South Carolina.

Background: The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) is the governing authority for sailing competition at colleges and universities throughout the United States and in some parts of Canada. There are seven Conferences that schedule and administer regattas within their established geographic regions, with ICSA hosting two national championships in the fall (singlehanded, match racing) and three national championships in the spring (team, women’s, coed). collegesailing.org