ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy intercollegiate sailing team completed the ICSA Women's Fleet Race Championship on Thursday in Boston, Mass., finishing 13th in the finals.
 
With the ICSA championships hosted by Harvard and MIT, the Midshipmen were one of 18 teams that had advanced through the national semifinal round on Tuesday to compete in the women's fleet racing finals. The fleet was very deep and the Charles River was a challenging venue, so there was little room for error over the two days of competition.
 
The first day started out with a relatively stable 5-10 knot westerly wind, as Navy got off to a decent start and was able to remain consistent enough to be in the top half of the field throughout the morning. In the afternoon, the conditions changed as the wind shifted to the southwest and became very puffy and shifty, with the wind ranging from 5 to 20 knots with huge direction changes that would drop down onto the course. The Mids struggled to adjust to the conditions and a rough afternoon dropped the team to 14th overall at the end of Wednesday.
 
Thursday saw a similar southwesterly wind direction but the differences in wind strength weren't nearly as great. Just as Navy was beginning to move back up the scoresheet, a series of thunderstorms swept through the region, leading to a lengthy postponement ashore. After the storms passed, a few more races per division were completed before the cutoff time as Navy finished 13th overall. 
 
Juniors Evie Blauvelt and Maggie Schuler, sophomore Darby Graham and freshman Mary Dwyer finished 12th in the "A" division while junior Linnea Forsberg, sophomores Ava Farley and Ella Niehoff and freshman Josie Sherry were 14th in the "B" division.
 
Next up for Navy is the ICSA Open Fleet Race Semifinals on May 24-27.