College Sailing: Fall Season Update

This 2018-19 college sailing season gets underway with a new adjusted schedule that begins with three weeks largely consisting of intra-conference regattas that, perhaps, will make new feel like old. Chris Klevan provides this week’s update on activity in the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA).

The New England conference saw Yale Corinthian Yacht Club host the Harry H. Anderson Jr. Regatta with the home team, Yale, taking the victory, narrowly beating the Terriers of Boston University, 152 total points to 159 respectively.

Yale’s victory was solidified by an impressive performance by Claudia Loiacono ‘21 and Shawn Harvey ‘21 in B-Division. The tandem won the division by 27 points, sailing the shifty conditions with only one finish outside the top-10 and 6 first place finishes in 16 races.

BU’s Robby Gearon ‘19 and Lexi Pline ‘19 won A-Division with 65 points. The defending National Champions, MIT finished third at the event with 176 points.
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The national runner-up College of Charleston returned to their natural form as leaders of the Southeastern Conference, winning Eckerd College’s SAISA Women’s Open in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Cougars won with 41 points, 15 points better than the 56 points by University of South Florida.

Alie Toppa ‘20 and Annabel Carrington ‘19 won A-Division handily, stringing together 9 straight first place finishes. Twin sister, Liza Toppa, sailing with Caroline Bracken ‘19, won B-Division. Jacksonville University finished third with 75 points.
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Cornell University won their home event, the Jack Boehringer ’52 Memorial Regatta. The best teams in the northern region of the Mid Atlantic Conference (MAISA), Cornell and Hobart and William Smith squared off on Lake Cayuga with what looks to be both team’s top boats.

Cornell was one of the great surprises from last year, qualifying for all three spring national championships and HWS was one of the best teams in the nation throughout the season. Yet, Cornell got it done, winning A-Division decisively behind an impressive effort from Clark Uhl ‘19, sailing with Adeline Sutton ‘21 and Becca Jordan ‘21, who finished with 21 points and only one race outside the top-3.

“It was great to get an early season win,” said Brian Clancy, Head Coach at Cornell. “We have a lot of work to do before the Championships in May.”
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In the southern region of MAISA, Georgetown showed their depth winning both divisions of the Riley Cup at Old Dominion with Andy Reiter ‘19 and Claire Mohun ‘19 in A and Jack Reiter ‘22 and Gwynie Dunlevy ‘20 in B. The quality of competition should improve in MAISA once Cornell and HWS head south to meet the other powers in the Mid Atlantic.

The southern stretch of the Mid-Atlantic and the northern region of SAISA is bracing for a hurricane later this week. Regardless of what that means for racing next week, keep our college sailing friends in mind over the next couple days.
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University of Wisconsin won the Fall Fury hosted by Wisconsin. Winning both divisions, the Badgers finished by 30 points, 27 points ahead of University of Michigan. Charlie Kutschenreuter ‘19 with Olivia Staruck ‘20 and Peter Sauer ‘20 won A-Division and Noah Janssen ‘19 with Maggie Houtz ‘19 switched with Scott Sullivan ‘19 and Emma Zalog ‘20 to win the B-Division.

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 Fall Nationals
November 2-4 – Singlehanded – Macatawa Bay, MI
November 16-18 – Match Racing – Newport Beach, CA