College Sailing: Fall Season Update

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

The #12 ranked George Washington University won the MAISA (Mid Atlantic) Women’s Fall Dinghy Championship, hosted by SUNY Maritime College. The regatta, on the shores of the East River, was dictated by the breeze, or lack thereof. The eight race event therefore was a stressful one for MAISA teams hopeful of a berth to the Women’s Atlantic Coast Championships with only seven available.

The Colonials of GWU were impressive, finishing in the top-3 in each of the two divisions, including a B-Division victory by Riley Legault ‘19 and Andreea Rainey-Pace ‘20 with 11 total points after 4 races sailed.

Senior Rose Edwards of Georgetown with Caroline Teare ‘21 won A-Division with just 7 points after the 4 races sailed. The Hoya boat finished with no races outside the top-2.

The seven teams to qualify for the Women’s Atlantic Coast Championship, held at Connecticut College, November 11-12, are #12 George Washington, #14 Hobart and William Smith Colleges, #16 Cornell, #9 Georgetown, Fordham, #20 Navy and #17 St. Mary’s.
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The Sherman Hoyt Trophy hosted by Brown University was the premier coed interconference regatta hosted over last weekend. Moreover, it was the only major championship-level event with quality breeze throughout the weekend. After 14 races sailed in each of the two divisions, #3 College of Charleston won the event by 10 points over #2 Yale.

The only team with two top-5 division scores, the Cougars placed 3rd in A and 3rd in B which was enough to get it done for Charleston in a regatta where consistency was hard to find. Charleston featured their stalwart team of Stefano Peschiera ‘18 with Grace McCarthy ‘18 in A and Augie Dale ‘19 and Katherine Lounsbury ‘20 in B.

Juniors Christopher Williford and Rebecca McElvain of #6 Dartmouth College won A-Division with 75 points, stringing together a scoreline with only two races outside the top-10, while Lindsey Baab ‘18 and Julia Kim ‘18 of #20 Brown won the B-Division with 77 points, winning four of the 14 races sailed.
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#2 ranked Coast Guard won the Mrs. Hurst Bowl hosted by Dartmouth College. An extremely light-air regatta, only 5 races were sailed in each division. Starting slow, after an 11th place finish in each of the two divisions, Coast Guard rallied back to win the event after countback with the home team, #4 Dartmouth.

Ragna Agerup ‘20 and Abigayle Konys ‘19 of #3 Brown won A-Division with 21 points and Dartmouth’s Audrey Giblin ‘20 and Sophia Diserio ‘18 won B-Division with 16 points.

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