ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy offshore sailing team closed out its fall schedule on Saturday and Sunday by placing second at the Kennedy Cup in Annapolis.
 
Ten teams were on hand at the Naval Academy competing for the Kennedy Cup, with intercollegiate sailing's Big Boat Championship on the line. Those teams included last year's champion California Maritime representing PCCSC, Michigan and Toledo from the MCSA, NEISA members Massachusetts Maritime, Rhode Island and Coast Guard, SAISA representative College of Charleston and MAISA's SUNY Maritime and Merchant Marine alongside fellow conference member Navy.
 
Saturday's conditions were ideal with warm south-southeasterly breezes, as the Midshipmen overcame a tough opening race to rebound in the next three races (third, second, second) and end the first day of racing in second place behind Cal Maritime.
 
Sunday started with a realistic shot of Navy at overtaking Cal Maritime's five-point lead, as the Mids would need to put up some top finishes themselves and have Cal Maritime stumble. Navy sailed hard and finished third in Race No. 5 and fourth in Race No. 6, but Cal Maritime answered with two more wins in those races to put the series out of reach going into the seventh and final race.
 
Navy ended Sunday in second overall at 26 points, five points ahead of third-place Coast Guard and six points ahead of fourth-place Merchant Marine. The Mids' crew included senior skipper Joey Zaladonis, senior crew Madelyn Ploch and Virendra Ghate, juniors Richard Irving, Kobe Nguyen and Renee Bonner and sophomores Logan Hewitt and Elliott Brandicourt.
 
"This group worked incredibly well together and kept their composure throughout the event and we are all super proud of them," said Navy head coach Jahn Tihansky. "We'd like to thank everyone from the team who helped out running the races as well as manning the coach boat. We could not have run the event without their efforts."

The Kennedy Cup concludes the fall season for the Navy offshore sailing team.