ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy intercollegiate sailing team won the Aaron Szambecki Team Race at Old Dominion University this past weekend. The MAISA regular season for team racing concluded this weekend before the conference championship takes place over the next two weekends.

The Szambecki is one of the most established and best run events on the circuit and always features top competition. This year was no different, as eight of the 10 teams in attendance came in ranked in the top-20 nationally. The regatta started out with a nice northwesterly breeze and clear skies, resulting in some very nice sailing. As the day warmed up however, the breeze faded and became very spotty at the end of the day.

After numerous delays, Navy wound up 5-1 on the day and in good position heading into Sunday. Day 2 began with a nice 8-12 knot northerly wind and the initial round robin finished up with Navy sitting at 7-2 and tied for second heading into a double final four round robin to decide the regatta.

As the final round began, the wind began to increase, building to 15-22 knots during the first final four round and then to 20-25 knots for the second. The Midshipmen thrived in the heavy wind and set themselves up for a showdown at the end. Stanford and Navy each had 11 wins and 3 losses and were matched with each other in the last race of the regatta. They had split their first two meetings and this race would prove to be the decisive battle.

After a relatively even start, Navy held a slight lead at the windward marks, but the race was very tight. After a back and forth battle downwind, Navy held a very slight lead at the leeward marks with a 1,4,5 combination. Peter Hogan and Kelly Milliken were in first and held the Stanford player in the middle of the course in check. Max Brill and Kent Mathes were in fourth and were able to get free to the right side of the course while Gary Prieto and Parker Loftus in fiftth broke free to the left. From there, the Mids used their speed to sail around the Cardinal and arrive at the finish 1st, 2nd and 3rd to claim the victory in the race and the regatta.

The win locks up Navy's spot at the Prosser Trophy for the MAISA Team Race Championship in two weeks and eliminates the need to sail the Team Race Challenge next weekend. Ana Mier and Emma Remis sailed in most of the races before the wind reached its peak.

Down the road from Old Dominion at Christopher Newport University, another Navy team competed in the Hanbury Trophy. The six teams racing there were fortunate to have more moderate conditions on both days and some really good racing, completing four full round robins.

After a rough start at 1-4 in round 1, Navy found its footing and recorder a winning record from then on, winding up 9-11 overall, good enough for fourth place. Navy's skippers were Hamrick Morgan, Tyler Fleig and Sean Linden, sailing with crews Abigail Richardson, Alyson Wade and Bartholomew Winn.

Another Navy team stayed closer to home and participated in the Seahawk Team Race Scrimmage at St. Mary's. While this wasn't an official event, it did feature some top sailors and some great competition. Sailing for Navy were Jimmy Madigan, Nicholas Gartner, Connor Bayless, Karma Richards, Anna Cutler, Holly Koerwer and Madeline Pruzan. They finished third overall out of six.