Sailing Has Mixed Results at Regattas

After claiming the top spot in the Ivy League the previous week, the Harvard sailing team looked to continue its success and maintain its standing as it competed in a trio of regattas this past weekend.

The Crimson picked up its third win of the spring season with the co-ed team finishing first at the 14th Southern New England Team Race Intersectional. The co-eds also sent another squad out on the water over the weekend to compete for the Boston University Trophy, where the team took 10th place.  The women’s squad competed this weekend as well, coming in 15th place at the 25th Women’s Brad Dellenbaugh Trophy Intersectional.

“We’ve been winning a lot of good races, making good plays and good execution,” senior Alan Palmer said. “We feel pretty good about where we are right now.”

14th SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND TEAM RACE INTERSECTIONAL

The co-ed team sent its best sailors down to New London, Conn., to compete at the 14th Southern New England Team Race Intersectional hosted by Connecticut College and the Coast Guard Academy.  Harvard put together one of its best performances this spring, posting a 14-1 record on the weekend to claim the first-place finish.

“Last year, one of our Achilles’ heels was when it got real breezy,” senior John Stokes said. “We’ve had a couple of situations [during the weekend], but we’ve done a lot better when breezes come up [with] being able to set up boats fast and still make plays and execute team racing.”

But this was not an easy victory for the Crimson, as it faced stiff competition from Roger Williams University and Boston College. At the end of the regatta, all three teams posted identical 13-2 records, requiring a three-way tiebreaker to decide the victor, which would be won by the top-ranked Eagles.

But the tiebreaker would prove to be moot, as Harvard won a protest over an earlier incident with Boston College, giving the Crimson sole possession of first place.

Eleven different sailors competed for Harvard with combinations of four skippers and eight crews, easily one of the biggest squads put out by the Crimson in recent competition. Palmer, Stokes, fellow senior Tedd Himler and junior Brendan Kopp skippered for the Crimson. Senior Meghan Wareham, junior Quincy Bock, sophomore Alma Lafler, sophomore Jason Michas, freshman Sarah Pierson, and Stokes all crewed multiple races, while junior William White—who is a Crimson news editor—and freshman Luke O’Connor each raced once as crew.

“We have some crews that don’t have as much experience,” Palmer said. “But I think we’ve done pretty well integrating everyone.”

BOSTON UNIVERSITY TROPHY

Not too far away from home territory, Harvard competed in its second event at Boston University in as many weeks.

But familiar surroundings did not give an edge to the Crimson, as the team finished in 10th place out of a field of 14. The host Terriers took the win with a low score of 89 points.

In the A-division, sophomore Ryan Byrne and freshman Kathryn Kelley managed to take second place in two of the 14 races they competed in but finished with a score of 101, a far cry from the 46 points put out by the top two teams in the division as they finished in ninth place.

Harvard’s B-division squad did not fare much better, as the freshman duo of Ben Lamont and Alice Kenney were unable to place higher than fifth in any of their races. The pair finished in 11th place on the weekend.

25th WOMEN’S BRAD DELLENBAUGH TROPHY

The women’s squad sent out by the Crimson on the weekend traveled down to Providence, R.I., to compete for the 25th Women’s Brad Dellenbaugh Trophy against 16 other teams from across the country.  Harvard finished in 15th place out of 17 teams with a score of 324 points, nearly 200 points behind the host and winner Brown.

In the A-division, the junior combo of Emily Lambert and Alex Jumper hoped to continue on their spring season hot streak, but the two had an atypical outing, only finishing twice in the top two and four times in the top four, wrapping up the weekend in 10th place.

The B-division saw another classmate pair compete, this time the freshman duo of Morgan Russom and Isabel Ruane, hoping to put the experience they have gained in the previous weeks to good use. But the two were unable to place in the top half of the field with the highlight of their weekend being an eighth-place finish in their fourth race. They finished the regatta in 15th place.

—Staff writer Ricky Liu can be reached at ricky.liu12@college.harvard.edu.