Reineke, Boucher win College Singlehanded Nationals

The College Men’s and Women’s Singlehanded National Championships was won by sophomore Leo Boucher (St. Mary’s College of Maryland) and junior Sophia Reineke (Boston College). Racing in the Laser full rig and radial rig, the event attracted the top 18 men and women to vie for the titles on November 9-10 in Santa Barbara, CA.

The racing on day one saw sunny skies, nice breeze starting around 7-10 knots and building to 10-12 knots with 15 knots at the highest point. Ten races were completed for the men in the full rigs and nine for the women in the radials. The competitors sailed in the Santa Barbara Channel on windward-leeward courses with four legs.

Day two had a short delay in the start of racing due to light winds. Racing got started with the women in the radials around 11 a.m. in light and spotty conditions. The competitors finished up the event with 14 races total in each fleet just before 3 p.m.

Boucher was sitting in third place after day one but closed strong to take the title. He placed second in this championship last year making this the second time that St. Mary’s has placed in the top two at this event. This year he is the winner of the Glen S. Foster Trophy, awarded to the first place finisher.

“The competition in the fleet was tough and Leo did a great job hanging in there because he didn’t have many chances to pull away from the fleet,” says Bill Ward, director of sailing at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. “In his last race he tried to stay ahead of the close competition and keep his lead. Leo sails Lasers outside of school and was able to practice at school for the two qualifiers leading up to this event with his teammates.”

Finishing three points behind Boucher in second place is Richard McCann, a sophomore from the University of Miami, and he received the George Griswold Trophy. The top four places all finished within five points of each other.

Sophia Reineke is the winner of the Janet Lutz Trophy, awarded to the first place finisher in the women’s championship. She finished the regatta nine points ahead of second place, Christina Sakellaris, from Stanford University, who won this event last year. Reineke held onto the lead throughout the regatta, but only by a small margin.

“This event is always challenging,” says Reineke. “Everyone out there is more than capable of winning – I think there were three other women on the course who have won this championship before. I am happy with my performance, I came to the regatta with three things to work on and I kept them in my head all weekend to achieve. One thing that has been really great is all of the support from my team members at home — even though it’s a singlehanded regatta, they have been behind me and sent messages and videos of support.”

Event details – Men’s results – Women’s results

Men’s, Final Results (14 races):
1. Leo Boucher ’22, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 65
2. Richard McCann ’22, University of Miami, 68
3. Gage Schoenherr ’21, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 69
4. Charles Carraway ’22, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 70
5. Connor Nelson ’23, Brown University, 85
6. Richie Gordon ’21, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 99
7. Paul Didham ’21, California State University Long Beach, 99
8. Vir Menon ’20, Christopher Newport University, 116
9. Carrson Pearce ’21, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Kings Point, 118
10. Gavin McJones ’23, U.S. Naval Academy, 138
11. John Kirkpatrick ’22, Stanford University, 144
12. Javier de Urdanibia Panos ’21, Boston University, 151
13. Malcolm Benn Smith ’21, College of Charleston, 155
14. Steven Leuck ’20, College of Charleston, 159
15. Cameron Giblin ’23, Tulane University, 187
16. Jonathan Bailey ’22, University of Wisconsin, 208
17. Erik Skeel ’20, University of Washington, 224
18. Patrick Schmidt ’21, University of Wisconsin, 239

Women’s, Final Results (14 races):
1. Sophia Reineke ’21, Boston College, 59
2. Christina Sakellaris ’21, Stanford University, 68
3. Charlotte Rose ’22, Jacksonville University, 76
4. Talia Toland ’21, Tufts University, 90
5. Lilly Myers ’23, Cornell University, 98
6. Clara Gravely ’21, Queens University, 101
7. Hallie Schiffman ’23, Stanford University, 104
8. Elizabeth Shanahan ’23, Boston College, 107
9. Louisa Nordstrom ’20, Yale University, 111
10. Haddon Hughes ’19, Georgetown University, 120
11. Hannah Steadman ’20, Brown University, 121
12. Jessica McJones ’20, U.S. Naval Academy, 131
13. Carly Broussard ’21, Georgetown University, 144
14. Alexandra Talbot ’22, Tufts University, 177
15. Ciara Rodriguez-Horan ’22, Tulane University, 195
16. Maartje van Dam ’23, Jacksonville University, 219
17. Siri Schantz ’23, Ohio University, 229
18. Rebekah Janssen ’21, University of Wisconsin, 245

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

2019 Fall Nationals
November 1-3 – Match Racing – Marblehead, MA
November 8-10 – Singlehanded – Santa Barbara, CA