ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy intercollegiate sailing team posted an eighth-place finish in the ICSA Open Fleet Race Finals on Monday in Boston, Mass., wrapping up its 2023-24 season.
 
With the nation's the top 18 teams advancing on from Friday and Saturday's semifinals to square off for the championship, Sunday saw a relatively steady, 5-10 knot easterly breeze and a very tight fleet. The Midshipmen got off to a decent start but had a hard time posting consistently strong races through the afternoon, closing the first day in 10th overall.
 
Monday started out with another light and relatively steady easterly, as the Mids took lessons learned from Sunday to show improvement, posting one good score after another to slowly climb closer to the leaders. Navy made it all the way up to seventh before the wind died, but, after a brief delay, a very puffy and shifty southerly breeze developed as the last three races saw wild, unpredictable shifts and the Mids ended up dropping a place in the standings to wind up eighth overall.
 
Sophomores Nathan Smith and Darby Graham and junior Ryan Wahba finished eighth in the "A" division while senior Madeline Smith, sophomores Jack Welburn and Ellie Alex and freshman Henry Allgeier also took eighth in the "B" division.