Sept. 12, 2006

Martin Sterling, a freshman from Hawaii, qualified Navy sailing for the semifinals this weekend in the single-handed division. Martin survived some tough competition and some really trying conditions in Annapolis to earn the last spot to move on to the next round. Navy hosted this quarterfinal out of the Robert Crown Sailing center on both Saturday and Sunday. Twenty-nine boats came from all over the conference to compete for six spots. Navy had two other sailors compete for the top six, but fell short finishing 10th and 18th, respectively.

It was a big weekend of competition for Navy sailing with the team competing in six regattas. The sloop team competed at the Coast Guard Academy and finished an impressive fifth place overall and second in the conference. There were teams from all over the country competing in this event to get ready for their national qualifiers. Navy also sailed in the 24-team Capt Hurst event at Dartmouth College, which had teams from all over the country again competing. Navy sailed well but just could not be consistent, finishing 18th. The team also sailed two events at Old Dominion University, one double handed event and a single-handed event. Navy sent a really young team with freshman Tim Murphy sailing A Division and sophomore Trisha Kutkiewicz sailing B division. The combo did well finishing fifth out of 16 teams and the highlight was Murphy winning his first ever college race. The laser radial sailors had a challenging event but had some bright spots with freshman Tina Pryne finishing sixth out of 19 teams. The rest of the team fought with being consistent and finished 13th, 15th and 19th place. Overall, it was a solid weekend for a young team getting experience and knowledge to get everyone ready for the championship season.

# GO NAVY #