ANNAPOLIS, Md. – In its final fall competition of the season, Navy posted a second-place finish at the J/22 East Coast Championship while the Midshipmen also had a crew finish sixth overall in the 12-team, three-day event.
 
With many out of town boats not traveling to the championship, which was hosted by the Severn Sailing Association, the field consisted of mostly local boats but the level of competition remained high and racing was tight throughout. The wind came from many directions throughout the event but stayed in the 5-10 knot range most of the time. Shifty winds and strong currents made for challenging racing and positions were changing throughout the races.
 
Navy's team of JC Hermus, Madeline Pruzan, Sean Linden and Caden Scheiblauer was new to the J/22 having just been introduced to the boat the day before the competition. Despite being new to the boat, the Midshipmen came out strong and won the opening race of the series. However, the inexperience caught up to Navy's first crew in the following races and the team had some ups and downs in the final seven races to finish sixth overall.
 
The Midshipmen's second crew of Jeffrey Petersen, Kimmie Leonard, Gray Benson and Jack Carminati was much more consistent staying near the top of the fleet and remained in the hunt to win the event. However, at the last-minute Petersen was unable to compete on Sunday and assistant coach Dillon Paiva filled in for Petersen. Navy continued to post low scores and won the first race of the day on Sunday and in the end finished second overall.
 
"While this season has not been like any other in college sports, we have been fortunate to find local competitions to keep the team active," head coach Ian Burman commented. "In our four weekends of racing, we have been able to score two firsts, two seconds and a third-place finished against some stiff competition. The team is still working hard and should be ready when other colleges are able to compete again."
 
Navy is now set to return to competition in the spring semester in 2021.