KINGS POINT, N.Y. – The Navy intercollegiate sailing team spent Memorial Day weekend competing in the Inter-collegiate Sailing Association's Team Race National Championship, taking ninth place at the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y.
The top 16 teams from around the country were selected to compete, making the field very deep and challenging. Saturday's racing began in a very light northeasterly breeze and a few flights of races were completed before the wind died and the fleet was sent in for an on-shore postponement. After a lengthy delay, a southeasterly breeze filled and racing resumed, making for a very long day on site as the last few races were completed just before sunset, with the Midshipmen sailing eight races on the first day for a 3-5 record.
The second day of racing started out with another lengthy delay as the Mids waited for the wind to fill. In the afternoon, the southeasterly breeze filled again and the initial round-robin racing was completed, as Navy sailed much better on Sunday and found itself in a tight pack of teams jockeying for the last spot in the eight-team finals. The Midshipmen were up against Miami and needed a win to stay alive, with the race developing into an extremely exciting and very close battle, with the lead changing back and forth throughout the race before Navy pulled out the win once scores were posted, improving its record to 7-8 and forcing a three-way tie for eighth place with St. Mary's and Penn.
Heading into a sail-off between the three schools to determine who advanced to the final, Navy was up first against St. Mary's and held a narrow lead in the race up to the last mark with a 1-4-5 combination, but strong execution by the Seahawks on the last leg handed St. Mary's the win. Navy next beat Penn handily, needing the Quakers to narrowly beat St. Mary's and force another tiebreak. Penn held the lead until the last mark, but, once again, St. Mary's sailed a strong final leg and came out victorious to claim the eighth position and a spot in the final round.
Sailing for Navy as skippers were senior
Gavin McJones, sophomore
Cooper Walshe and freshman
Nathan Smith, while crews consisted of junior
Madeline Smith, sophomore
Ryan Wahba and freshman
Ellie Alex. Seniors
Colin MacGillivray and
Jonah Hatt, junior
Julia Christie and freshman
Jack Welburn were also on the roster in reserve.
"Our team racing squad was relatively inexperienced coming into the year after losing most of the starting squad to graduation a year ago, but this group learned a ton and improved throughout the season, displaying their best racing on the final day," said head coach
Ian Burman. "They will be hungry to advance farther in next year's team racing championship."
Next up for the Midshipmen is the ICSA Coed Fleet Racing Championship from May 30 to June 2. Scores for all events can be found at scores.collegesailing.org and live coverage can be found at ICSA.live.
