College Sailing: Spring Season Update

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

#7 Hobart and William Smith College won the Mid Atlantic Women’s Championship narrowly over #9 Georgetown University, 88 to 89 points, after 11 races in each division. The Herons of HWS sailed the 22 total race regatta well, collectively, winning B-Division with 47 points and finishing second in A-Division with 41 points, a combination typically good enough to win any regatta, let alone a conference championship.

Despite a strong start to the regatta, the Herons fell behind Georgetown in the middle of the event. Both HWS divisions were extremely strong, however, five of the six races scored outside the top-5 for the team, occurred between race 3A and race 6B. During this stretch, Georgetown pulled ahead. HWS rebounded and notched 7 races inside the top-4 over the final 8 races of the event to win.

HWS sophomore Katherine Cox and Sarah Warren ‘18 won B-Division with 47 points. Georgetown’s Rose Edwards ‘18, with Olivia van den Born ‘21 and Meaghan MacRae ‘18 splitting time in the front of the boat, won A-Division with 38 points, 7 of 11 races with top-3 finishes.

The top-9 teams at the event would move on to the ICSA Women’s National Semi-Final Championship, held at ODU, May 22 and 23. #17 St. Mary’s finished 3rd with 112 points, Navy finished 4th with 125, #8 George Washington finished 5th with 130 points, #19 Pennsylvania finished 6th with 131 points, Fordham finished 7th with 151 points, #16 Cornell finished 8th with 156 points and ODU finished 9th, the final qualifying spot, with 160 points.
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The NEISA Women’s Championship/ Reed Trophy is New England’s women’s conference championship and the qualifier for the Women’s Nationals. The top-11 teams advance to compete in the ICSA Women’s National Semi-Finals regatta held at Old Dominion, May 22-23. Of the 17 teams entered in the event, 12 are in the top-20 of Sailing World’s Rankings.

#3 Boston College won the event nearly wire-to-wire, finishing with 73 points after 9 races in each division, 22 points ahead of second place and #1 ranked Yale. The youngest team finishing in the top 5, Boston College showed that they’re more than ready to win a national championship.

Notably, Isabella Loosbrock ‘19 with Emma Perry won A-Division for the Eagles, 13 points ahead of the next best boat and beating some of the nation’s best in Baab, Rohde, and Klingler, staking her place among the best in the nation.

Emily Haig ‘21 and Greta Farrell ‘18 of #11 MIT won B-Division with 29 points through 9 races, showing no finishes outside the top-8 and 6 of nine inside the top-3.

#1 Yale finished second overall with 95 points and #5 Coast Guard edged #4 Brown for 3rd overall, both with 110 points. #14 Dartmouth, #11 MIT, #9 Boston University, #15 Connecticut College, #10 Harvard, #8 University of Rhode Island and #20 Tufts will join the top-3 in representing NEISA at the next level.
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#2 College of Charleston won the SAISA Women’s Championship in Charleston. The one day event, consisting of 9 teams, advanced the top four to the ICSA Women’s National Semi-Finals at ODU. Charleston, collectively, only had 2 races outside the top-3 and posted an impressive 11 firsts in 18 total races. They finished with 33 points, 7 ahead of runner-up University of South Florida.

Alie Toppa ‘20 with Annabel Carrington ‘19 and Caroline Bracken ‘19 won A-Division, continuing an impressive season. Toppa, this season, sailing primarily with Carrigan and Bracken, has yet to finish outside the top-4 in A-Division. Toppa, Carrington, and Bracken only had one race that wasn’t a one or a two throughout Saturday’s Championship.

University of South Florida finished second, 7 points behind the home team, Charleston. Marina Barzaghi ‘21, sailing with Darby Capellin ‘19, Rachel Yannelli ‘19, and Delaney Brown ‘20, finished first in B-Division with 17 points. While Charleston’s B-Division, Paris Henken ‘19 with Liza Toppa ‘20 and Elizabeth Mignon ‘19, completed the regatta with 6 firsts in 9 races, USF’s Barzaghi, Capellin, Yannelli and Brown were more consistent, finishing, like Toppa and company, with only one race outside the top-2.

Jacksonville finished 3rd with 75 points and Eckerd finished 4th with 78 points.
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The NWICSA Coed Championship was won by University of Washington decisively. The 5 team, 22 race regatta sends the top-2 northwest teams to the ICSA Coed National Semi-Finals regatta and Washington showed they are the cream of the crop. Their A-Division boat of Hayden Potter ‘20 and Farzana Mohamedali ‘20 won all of the 11 races sailed in A-Division. Erik Skeel ‘20 with Audrey Jacobs ‘18 and Johanna Mannisto ‘18 won B-Division, but they scored 3 races that weren’t first. Washington won both A and B division by wide margins.

Finishing second and claiming the final spot for nationals was the Western Washington University Vikings, though, this qualifying spot was much more competitive. Finishing only 4 points ahead of Oregon State, Western Washington was losing to the Beavers after race 7B. The two teams stayed close throughout the event, never more than a bad set away from a lead change. Congratulations to both teams moving onto the Coed Semi-Finals.
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The MCSA Team Race Championship was sailed at University of Wisconsin, host of the 2010 ICSA Spring National Championship regattas. The 6 team midwest event advanced the top 2 teams to the ICSA Team Race National Championship. University of Michigan dominated the one-day event, finishing with a 7-1 record.

August Sturm ‘19, Mason Wolters ‘18, and Colton Gerber ‘18 were the skippers for the Wolverines and Sofia Gambini ‘19, Michael Gapuz ‘18, and Sidney Thompson ‘18 were the crews that got the job done.

Finishing second was University of Wisconsin at 5 wins and 3 losses. The Badgers made it close, finishing only 1 loss ahead of the Panthers of University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. While finishing 0-2 against the Michigan Wolverines and 1-1 against Minnesota, the Badgers took care of business against their biggest threat, going 2-0 against the Panthers and punching their ticket to the big dance.
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While the women were qualifying for nationals and the final team race slots were being filled, the coed sailors on the east coast were gearing up for their conference championships this upcoming weekend.

The Admirals Cup at King’s Point held some of the east coast’s best boats. #5 Hobart and William Smith College won handily, led by Hector Guzman ‘20 and Maya Weber ‘20 winning B-Division by 14 points through 10 races sailed.

#1 Yale was 13 points back in second, led by Nicolas Baird ‘19 and Sonia Lingos-Utley ‘21 winning A-Division by 22 points, finishing with 24 points in the 10-race series. Notably, Baird, a College Sailor of the Year dark horse, beat presumptive finalist Greiner Hobbs and presumptive winner Stefano Peschiera, keeping his name in the race moving onto championship season.

#2 College of Charleston finished third with 110 points.

The regatta was cut short to a one day event as there was no wind on Sunday.

Background: The 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

2018 Spring Nationals – Norfolk, VA
5/22-25 – Women’s National Championship
5/26-28 – Team Race National Championship
5/29-6/1 – Coed National Championship