Sailing Heads to Nationals

By MALCOM A. GLENN

CRIMSON STAFF WRITER



It was back to the water over the weekend for the No. 3 Harvard co-ed sailing team and the No. 11 women’s squad, and the Crimson saved its most impressive performances for the most important regattas, securing a key first-place finish and, more importantly, a trip to nationals.



REED TROPHY

The New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) Women’s Championship took place at the Reed Trophy at Boston College in a regatta that would see the top five teams travel to nationals in Charleston, S.C. in May. Harvard placed fourth in the 13-team field, securing its position at the elite event, thanks in part to the strong showings of senior skipper Sloan Devlin and women’s captain Christina Dahlman. The two took second place in the A division, while freshman skipper Roberta Steele split time with junior crews Emily Simon and Cassandra Niemi in guiding the Crimson to a fifth-place finish in the B division.

“Our goal was to be really consistent, and that would guarantee us a spot in the top five,” Steele said. “We obviously wanted to do well, but the most important thing was to qualify for nationals.”

Yale and the host Eagles took first and second place, respectively, while Harvard’s 117 total points was just barely edged by third-place Dartmouth’s 116.

“We battled it out with Dartmouth all weekend,” Steele said. “Even though we didn’t beat them, we got the job done. We’ll just have to do better at nationals.”



THOMPSON TROPHY

The Crimson’s best squad was at the Thompson Trophy at the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. for a top-tier regatta, and the team didn’t disappoint, engineering perhaps the most dominant performance of the spring season en route to an easy first-place finish.

Harvard swept both divisions on its way to just 225 points, 26 ahead of second-place Boston College. Senior Vincent Porter shared time with captain Clay Johnson at the skipper position in A-division’s boat while senior Ruth Schlitz handled crew duties. The B-division saw sophomore skipper Kyle Kovacs and freshman crew Jon Garrity take first-place by a five-point margin over Georgetown, which faltered a bit in A-division on its way to an eighth-place finish. South Florida, St. Mary’s, and Tufts rounded out the top five, while Dartmouth and Boston University took sixth and seventh places, respectively.



GEORGE MORRIS TROPHY

The Crimson sent two boats to BU to compete in the George Morris Trophy in a regatta which saw Harvard wrestle the fourth-place spot away from Connecticut College. The junior A-division tandem of skipper Matthew Knowles and crew Ashley Nathanson actually took fifth-place behind the Camels, but freshman skipper Megan Watson and senior crew Mallory Greimann in B-division finished in third place, two spots ahead of Connecticut. The final tally had the Crimson with 167 points, two points ahead of the fifth-place spot.



PRIDDY TROPHY



The other championship competition of the weekend took place at the Priddy Trophy at Tufts, where Harvard’s freshman competed in the NEISA Freshman Championship. While there was no nationals berth on the line, the Crimson’s finish—fourth place out of fifteen teams—helped the team gauge some of it’s young sailors’ growth this year.

“We were happy with our finish, though we wish we could have been a little more consistent,” freshman skipper Andrew Flynn said.

Flynn and crew Lauren Brants occupied Harvard’s lone boat at the event, a regatta which gives teams good insight as to where to focus their training during the offseason. For Flynn and many other young sailors, that offseason is soon—the Priddy Trophy was his second-to-last event of the year.

“We got to see where everyone stood, how every team’s freshman are doing at the end of the year,” Flynn said. “All spring long we’ve been working on certain things…hopefully we can put it all together, with all my experience this spring, and hopefully it can culminate with a good [final] weekend.”



METRO SERIES 5



The Metro Series continued for the Crimson this weekend at Brandeis College in Waltham, Mass. Harvard took sixth place overall, finishing in the middle of the 11-team pack. Junior skipper Robby McIntosh and freshman crew Margaret Wang guided one of the Crimson’s boats to a sixth place finish, while junior crew Marion Guillaume teamed up with freshman crew Emily Lamont to finish 20th in Harvard’s other boat. Tufts, Boston University and Boston College made it an all-Massachusetts top three finish.

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.