ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy intercollegiate sailing team stayed busy this past weekend, hosting a conference championship in Annapolis and racking up strong finishes at the three-in-one Top Nine Regatta in Kings Point, N.Y.
Hosting a five-team Intrepid Trophy field in the MAISA Team Racing Championship, Navy held the event in the fleet of Colgate 26 sailboats on the Chesapeake Bay. Conditions were great with 8-12 knots out of the northeast that switched east and built throughout the afternoon, making the racing so efficient that the regatta format was completed on Saturday. The Midshipmen got off to a strong start, winning their first three matches convincingly, as Navy finished the round-robin with three points to advance to the semifinal round where it faced Fordham.
Semifinal racing was tight, but Navy finished 2-0 over the Rams to advance to the final against Georgetown. Racing in the finals was even closer, with many umpire calls and tight finishes. Unfortunately, the Hoyas sailed just a little faster upwind and the Mids closed as the runners-up. Navy's team of seniors
Nathan Smith and
Darby Graham and sophomores
Owen MacWilliams and
Kyle Reinecke will not wait to see if they receive an at-large bid to the ICSA Team-Race Nationals in November.
The MAISA Top Nine Regatta was held at the US Merchant Marine Academy and consisted of three regattas happening at the same time on the same course in open fleet racing, women's fleet racing and singlehanded sailing. The conditions started out solid on Saturday but lightened throughout the day, while Sunday started off light before a solid northeasterly finished the event off with some great sailing. In open fleet racing, the Mids entered having won their first three open fleet regattas of the season and started out strong to put themselves within striking distance of the lead halfway through Saturday, but they struggled to maintain the momentum as the conditions deteriorated. The struggles continued early in the day on Sunday, but the team was able to post solid finishes at the end of racing to finish fourth out of nine schools, with freshmen
Leo Robillard and
Liam Christopher and senior
Darby Graham finishing seventh in the combined division while juniors
Henry Allgeier and
Fiona Cullen placed ninth.
In the women's fleet racing portion of the Top Nine, Navy got off to a strong start and stayed near the top of the fleet all weekend. The Mids had taken the lead by the end of racing on Saturday but a slew of protest and redress hearings shuffled the scores and Navy dropped a spot to stand second overnight, and the team had a harder time staying consistent on Sunday but was able to hold its spot all day and finish second out of nine overall. Senior
Ava Farley and junior
Mary Dwyer came in third in the combined division while senior
Eleanor Niehoff, junior
Josie Sherry and sophomore
Sarah McNelly wound up seventh.
The ILCA singlehanded division at the Top Nine Regatta event served as a tune up for next weekend's Carl Van Duyne MAISA Singlehanded Championship, as Navy had four of the 15 sailors that were on hand and scores were very close at the top of the standings. Sophomore
Sean Trudell and freshman
Robbie Richards both posted some great scores with each winning races, but inconsistency pushed Trudell to eighth overall while Richards placed seventh. Junior
Spencer Dominguez took the overall lead part-way through Saturday but some rough races late in the day and early Sunday dropped him down in the standings, while a win the last race helped him take fourth. For junior
Teddy Martin, he got off to a hot start by winning the first race and sailed a very consistent regatta, with all but two of his finishes in the top-5, and the consistency allowed him to emerge from a tight three-way battle at the top of the standing for the overall victory.
Navy gets set for another busy weekend, sending crews to Hinman Trophy, the Carl Van Duyne MAISA Men's Singlehanded Championship, the Danmark Trophy and the first round of the Women's Atlantic Coast Championships.
