ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Senior Mary Hall of the Navy intercollegiate sailing program won the Faye Bennet MAISA Women's Singlehanded Championship this past weekend in Annapolis.

Navy hosted the event, which was the first conference championship of the school year. The top-18 qualified women's sailors from the Mid-Atlantic region were in attendance, fighting for four berths to the Laser Performance ICSA Women's Singlehanded National Championship in Bellingham, Wash. from November 7-9.

Hall had made it to the Nationals in each of her first three years in college sailing and she left no doubt that she was going back again, winning seven of the nine races on the weekend to claim the overall win. Even the two races she didn't win were good ones for the Midshipmen as Hannah Hughes won one race and Emma Ferris won the other. Ferris was able to sail consistently enough over the course of the weekend to finish second overall and will be joining Hall at Nationals. Hughes came on strong on Sunday, but a slow start kept her just outside of qualifying position, finishing sixth overall. This marks the fourth year in a row that Navy has qualified two women for the Singlehanded Nationals.

On the same course, 20 men also competed in the MAISA Laser Elimination, looking to advance to the Carl Van Duyne MAISA Men's Singlehanded Championship at Navy on October 11-12. Two Navy sailors were in the field and both sailed well enough to advance to the Van Duyne. Peter Hogan finished third overall while Phil Youngberg was sixth. hey will be joined in the next round by Addison Hackstaff and Gary Prieto, who advanced two weeks ago at the Laser South Regatta.

A group of Midshipmen made the long trip up to Tufts University in Medford Massachusetts to sail the Hood Trophy Regatta in Lark sailboats on Mystic Lake. While light winds prevented many races from being completed, Navy was able to secure sixth overall in the 20-team event. Patrick Snow and Megan Hough came in fourth in A division while Gary Prieto and Molly Hanson were 14th in B.

In our other event of the weekend, Navy finished 15th out of 18 teams at the St. Mary's Fall Regatta. Michael Popp and Alex Asuncion finished 11th in A division while Michael Madigan and Michelle Katz were 15th in B.