Feb. 22, 2012

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Navy Sailing's spring season got underway this weekend with its first regatta, the USF Women's Interconference in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Ten teams from all over the country converged for a fun and competitive event contested in 80-degree temperatures and sunny skies. The first day started out with a long delay while the fleet waited for wind. Eventually, a steady 10-knot breeze filled in and the fleet hit the course, with A and B divisions sailing together to make for a 20-boat fleet. Navy's A division team of Mary Hall and Layne Morrison came out on fire, sailing in Mary's home waters and opening up an early lead for the Midshipmen after the first day. Sunday saw much windier conditions and the course was set inside the small harbor off the USF Sailing Center. The confined conditions led to extremely shifty and puffy winds and consistent scores proved hard to come by. Despite a strong showing by both of the Navy boats, Stanford came on extremely strong at the end, winning five races in a row at one point to move into first place overall. Navy ended up second with Mary and Layne finishing third in A division, while Marissa Lihan And Emma Ferris were 2nd in B. The strong showing should set the stage for a good season for the Midshipmen in women's competition.

Closer to home and much colder, two teams from Navy participated in the Quad Scrimmage at St. Mary's College of Maryland with teams from St. Mary's, Georgetown and Old Dominion. Both days offered up near-perfect team-racing conditions and the teams got some great practice against some of the best teams in the country. Sailing for the Navy Blue team were skippers Jason Carminati, Devin Laviano and Michal Grove, with crews Caroline Lockett, Julie Digiovanni and Chelsea Smith. Sailing for Navy Gold were skippers Lukas Edegran, Markus Edegran and Alex Ramos with crews Saverio Maldari, Jocelynn Knudsenn and Alex Asuncion.

# GO NAVY #