ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy intercollegiate sailing team kept the fall season rolling this past weekend, hosting a trio of regattas in Annapolis and claiming first place in a pair of those regattas.
 
In the first conference championship of the year, the Faye Bennet MAISA Women's Singlehanded Championship was contested in Navy's fleet of ILCA 6 boats on a course set off of Greenbury Point. The 18 sailors were selected through prior team performance and by resume to comprise one of the strongest Faye Benent fields in recent years, with racing being tight all weekend. Saturday was near-perfect with 8-12 knots from the southeast and eight races completed, while Sunday was light and fickle all day with only one additional race sailed.
 
Of the two Midshipmen in the fleet, junior Kate Zurinskas got off to a rough start but was able to close out the event with her best races to finish 13th overall, while senior Ava Farley posted some great finishes in her first ILCA regatta but struggled to find consistency in the new boat, winding up in a five-way tie for fifth overall and taking seventh after tiebreakers were applied. 
 
In the Chesapeake Invitational, the six-team combined division event had each school fielding three boats. Despite featuring conditions similar to those for the women, the course was closer to the Crown Sailing Center and had to contend with a good amount of recreational boat traffic. Navy got out to an early lead and held the team lead through to the finish as all three Mid boats were sailing well. In the end, seniors Nathan Smith and Ellie Alex finished first in the combined division while juniors Henry Allgeier and Fiona Cullen were third and seniors Jack Welburn and Darby Graham came in sixth. 
 
On the same course as the Chesapeake Invitational, the Chesapeake Open was a nine-team combined division regatta, with each team fielding two boats and Navy entering two teams. One of the Mids' teams got off to a hot start and held the overall lead through the fifth race, but a 12,13 finish in the sixth race dropped the team back to third overall and remained in that spot through the end.
 
Sophomores Umi Noritake and Kyle Reinecke, junior Eva Ottenbreit and freshman Ana Lynch Smith finished in second place in the combined division while junior George Carty, sophomores Owen MacWilliams and Molly Jethwa and senior Eleanor Niehoff placed ninth.
 
Navy's other team lurked in the top of the leaderboard all weekend, remaining in striking distance and waiting for its opportunity, and that opportunity came in the final race when the team posted a 1,6 finish to leap past St. Mary's College into first place. Junior Teddy Martin, sophomore Melania Gonzalez and freshmen Leo Robillard and Ethan Martin finished third in the combined division while sophomores Sean Trudell and Sarah McNelly and freshmen Robbie Richards and Noelle Sizemore wound up eighth.
 
Navy continues the fall slate on Sept. 20-21, competing in the Intrepid Trophy and the Top Nine Regatta.