Sailing Wins First Round of the Women’s Atlantic Coast Championship

Harvard sailing spread its roster across five regattas throughout New England this weekend, emerging with a victory in the first round of the Women’s Atlantic Coast Championship and a fourth-place finish at the Danmark Trophy, highlighting a packed slate of competition.

The Crimson’s strongest showing came in Harpswell, Maine, where its women won the first round of the Atlantic Coast Championship with 57 points, comfortably ahead of second-place Roger Williams’ 92. The victory secured Harvard a spot in the Women’s Atlantic Coast Championship and positioned the Crimson as a top seed.

“The Women’s Atlantic Coast Championship, Round One, is a qualifier for the Atlantic Coast Championship, which is probably one of the premier regattas of the fall season,” head coach Michael O’Connor explained. “We had our top women sailing in that event at Bowdoin, and they sailed extremely well.”

Harvard dominated both divisions. Senior duo Zoey Ziskind and Christina Chen won the A Division with 32 points, finishing seventh or better in all 10 races and recording three victories. Junior Kate Danielson and senior JJ Drummond won six of their 10 races in the B Division, finishing with a division-best 25 points.

O’Connor pointed to Harvard’s improvement in several disciplines, particularly its starts, as key to the team’s successful performance.

“Their execution on the starting line was very good, and their speed in a range of conditions is quite good,” O’Connor said. “Their boat handling has improved tremendously, so they’re really putting it together at the right time.”

Despite its convincing first-round win, Harvard will need to repeat that performance at the Atlantic Coast Championship hosted at Brown in late October, as no points from the qualifier carry over.

“It just guarantees us the opportunity to be in that event,” O’Connor said. “We’ll have to execute again.”

While Harvard’s women led the way in Maine, the Crimson also had success at another strong competition, the Danmark Trophy in New London, Conn. Harvard finished with 176 points, tied with Boston College, and took fourth place in a tiebreaker behind Brown, Stanford, and Navy.

The Crimson’s B Division pairing of sophomore Jacob Posner and junior Amelie Zucker delivered three race victories across 11 races to finish with 84 points. In the A Division, junior Harrison Strom and freshman Zia Zucker recovered from a difficult opening stretch to record eight consecutive single-digit finishes, closing the regatta with a second-place result and 92 points overall.

The mixed results at Danmark showed where O’Connor believes Harvard still needs to improve, particularly at the starting line.

“A lot of it has to do with their execution on the starting line,” O’Connor said. “When they put the boat in the right place at the right time, their results are very, very good.”

But when the Crimson begins a race out of position, O’Connor explained, sailors can be forced away from their original strategy as they try to make up ground.

“When they disadvantage themselves at the start, and they have to do unconventional things to try and get back into the race, sometimes those problems get compounded throughout the race,” O’Connor said. “That’s why you’ll see we have some races where we win and some races where we finish 15th.”

Beyond its two strongest performances, Harvard used the busy weekend to give less experienced sailors opportunities across three additional regattas.

At the Moody Trophy in South Kingstown, R.I., the Crimson finished ninth with 186 points. Freshman Max Wolfensberger and junior Michelle Chung placed fourth in the A Division with 70 points, closing the weekend with two victories in their final four races. Freshmen Grace Montgomery and Noelle Brighton added 116 points in B Division.

Harvard also finished 14th at the Smith Trophy, hosted by MIT, and ninth at the BU Invitational. While neither produced the same results as the Crimson’s top entries, O’Connor said those regattas served a different purpose for a roster that includes many new collegiate sailors.

“We’re starting a lot of first-year players and some players competing in their first regattas at the collegiate level, and some competing in their first regattas ever,” the coach said. “We’re pleased that they’re getting those opportunities.”

For many of those sailors, the weekend offered a chance to gain experience against seasoned competition.

“Our sailors are still working hard and trying to get better every day, and that’s all we can really ask,” O’Connor said.

That development has also carried into practice. O’Connor singled out Harvard’s walk-on crews for their improved boat handling since the opening weeks of the season, helping raise the program’s overall level of competition.

As the Crimson moves deeper into its fall schedule, the open and women’s teams have different areas to focus on. On the open side, O’Connor wants to see more consistent performances, while the women’s side will strive to continue its excellent start.

“On the open side, we need our execution to be more consistent, and on the women’s side, I think we just need to continue our trajectory,” O’Connor said. “Our team has worked really well together,” he added. “They’re sticking to the process, and they know that they can get better.”

—Staff writer Tamar H. Scheinfeld can be reached at [email protected].