Yale wins Team Race Nationals

Published on May 18th, 2022

New Orleans, LA (May 18, 2022) – The three day 2022 College Team Race National Championship came to a close today with Yale University topping the 16-team field for the title. After entering today behind Roger Williams, the Bulldogs peaked at the right time to top the 8-team stage, and then toppled the 4-team finals. Roger Williams is this year’s bridesmaid, with Georgetown on the final podium step. Earning ‘last of finals’ was Stanford. The winning Yale team was Jack Egan ’25/ Catherine Webb ’23, Shawn Harvey ’22/ Sonia Lingos-Utley ’22, and Teddy Nicolosi ’24/ Anisha Arcot ’23.

When asked what this means to the team, Yale Senior Sonia Lingos-Utley ‘22 said, “After three years of not being able to complete a full season, every weekend has been an incredible opportunity. The breeze held up when it needed to and we put our boat handling to the test in order to pull it all together for an amazing team win.”

The format for this event was a series of round robins beginning with a full Stage 1 – 16 team round robin with 120 races. The next round robin planned was Stage 2 – Top “Gold” 8, drawing the top 8 teams from the first series. The final round, Stage 3 – Final 4 determined the championship.

For this championship the competitors sail on a digital N course, which has a windward mark, a windward offset mark rounded to starboard and then down to a leeward mark with another leeward offset rounded to port and finish upwind. The digital N course allows for long upwind and downwind legs with short reach legs and four mark rounding opportunities – prime for team racing. Fleets raced in both collegiate FJs and Z420s.

Teams endured high temperatures and low wind speeds, with Lake Pontchartrain’s shallow depth serving up its characteristic chop. Add in the early morning starts, the days were long and hard.

Zach Leonard, Yale Head Coach said, “After a year off COVID we were really just trying to get back into our normal team racing routine. Our practices all semester were great. Shawn and Sonia really set a great example for everyone. I was really happy that the team had the chance to get back to doing what we love. Our team really gets excited about team racing. There is so much to learn that it’s a fun process.”

Event information – Results – Facebook

2022 College Spring Nationals
May 16-18 – Open Team Racing
May 19-22 – Open Doublehanded Fleet Racing
May 23-26 – Women’s Doublehanded Fleet Racing

2022 Team Race Nationals Results