Co-ed Sailing Rides Wave Into Nationals

In a season of parity among New England teams, the Harvard co-ed sailing team rose above the masses this season, earning a trip to the 16-team Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Association (ICYRA) North American Dinghy Championships, which were held in New Orleans on June 1-3.

Harvard, under first-year Coach Mike O'Connor, earned a spot at Nationals by finishing fourth out of 15 teams at the New England Championships May 10 at Brown. Only the top four New England schools qualify for Nationals, and Harvard took fourth by just one point to join Boston University, Boston College (B.C.) and Tufts among the New England qualifiers.

"It was a good event, but we did not have a good regatta," said junior Peter Strothman. "We've had much better all season. We are hoping to do even better at [Nationals]."

Unfortunately for the Harvard sailing community, the co-ed Dinghy Championships represent the school's lone postseason regatta of the spring season.

Harvard narrowly missed a spot in the National Team Race Championships by placing third at the New England Team Race Championships, held at Yale April 18-19. The top two teams in the nine-team field earned spots in the national tournament, and Harvard was edged out by B.C. and Connecticut College in a sail-off.

It was a frustrating loss, since the Crimson was one of three teams to tie for first on the first day of competition. But on the second day, Harvard was forced into a single-elimination round-robin sail-off in which it lost to both teams. Moreover, the Crimson had beaten both schools two weekends earlier when it finished second at the Friis Trophy Team Race.

"There are a lot of really strong teams among the New England schools," said senior Laura Stearns. "When you have that many boats, and the skill level is fairly even, it's really easy for things to change very quickly."

Radcliffe sailing is kicking itself as well.

With its eighth-place finish at the New England Women's Championships, which were raced on the Charles River May 2-3, Radcliffe was denied a spot in the ICYRA Women's National Championships. Needing a top-five finish to qualify, the Black and White is part of a veritable who's who of New England sailing teams--including B.C., Tufts and New Hampshire--to miss out on Nationals.

"There were easily nine schools that could have taken the top five spots," said junior Cori Ermler. "The teams that ended up qualifying were not the ones expected to go."

The consistently strong performances of both Radcliffe and the co-ed team throughout the spring season reflected the enormous parity in the region. Harvard garnered a first-place finish among 18 competitors at the Thompson Trophy Race on April 25-26, just two weeks before its fourth-place finish at New England's.

And Radcliffe showed great promise in the regattas leading up to its New England Championships, taking second out of 10 teams at the Regis Bowl, held April 25-26 on the Charles.

Record: N/A

Coach: Mike O'Connor

Highlights: Co-ed team reaches Nationals

Seniors: Sally Berens, Putney Cloos, Jenny Heath, Dan Parkes, Nicole Rodgers, Laura Stearns

But in the end, the wind did not blow Harvard's way, and Nationals is all that remains in the careers of several Harvard seniors. Both varsity sailing teams graduate a slew of sailors, including Stearns, Parkes, Putney Cloos, Sally Berens and Jenny Heath.