Sailing Defends its ICSA Open Team Racing National Championship Title

No. 1 Harvard sailing won its second consecutive ICSA Open Team Racing National Championship title on Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, La., finishing the regatta with a dominant 22-3 record. Immediately after winning the championship, the Crimson women’s team competed in the ICSA Women’s Team Racing National Championship, where it placed fourth overall.

ICSA Open Team Racing National Championship

For the third time in the last four years, the Crimson topped the leaderboard of the most important open team regatta of the season. Harvard started the tournament on fire and maintained its momentum through the rest of the competition, becoming the first program to win back-to-back open team race national championships since the College of Charleston in 2017 and 2018.

“We have had a target on our backs all year since winning the championship,” head coach Michael O’Connor said. “We set the bar. And there are a lot of very good teams who worked really hard to compete with us and to rise to the occasion. But every time they did, our team responded extremely well.”

Harvard went 11-0 to open up competition on Thursday. Seniors Justin and Mitchell Callahan and junior Robby Meek served as the Crimson’s skippers at the regatta, while junior Christina Chen, junior Rosella Irfan, and freshman Jacob Posner crewed Harvard’s boats.

The Callahan brothers have made a notable impact on the program, contributing to all three of Harvard’s open racing national championship titles during their time in Cambridge.

Meanwhile, in November, Meek won the ICSA Open Singlehanded National Championship for Harvard. Therefore, the junior has now claimed his second national accolade in less than a year.

On the opening day of racing, the Crimson finished 1-2-3 in seven of these races and five of its first seven, meaning that each Harvard boat beat all three of the boats of its competitors in more than half of the races.

To start Friday, the Crimson suffered its first loss, falling 2-4-6 to No. 2 Stanford, which finished the regatta as the runner-up. Nonetheless, Harvard still wrapped up the first round with a 14-1 record, then began the round of eight action with four wins.

In the final edition of Friday’s racing, the Crimson appeared to get revenge over the Cardinal, winning 1-2-5. However, a protest of the race was filed by Stanford early on Saturday. Harvard withdrew, dropping its record to 20-2 through the first two days.

Regardless, the Crimson entered the third and final day of competition having already clinched the national title. Harvard went 22-3 throughout the regatta, capping off a practically flawless open team season in dominant style and only losing to No. 9 Dartmouth on the final day of competition.

“I’m really, really proud of our team, and the way that they were able to keep their composure and maintain the level of focus and their execution was really great,” O’Connor said.

Stanford, which placed second, had an overall record of 17-8, while No. 3 Roger Williams placed third with its 16-9 score.

After celebrating the national title by jumping into Lake Pontchartrain, the team then set its sights on its next challenge, the ICSA Women’s Team Race National Championship regatta.

ICSA Women’s Team Race National Championship

The Women’s Team Race National Championship regatta, which spanned two days, also took place on Lake Pontchartrain. The Crimson women entered the regatta ranked sixth nationally, and eventually finished fourth overall.

“We tried very hard not to hold our women’s team to the same standard that we held our open team to, because the open team is much more experienced and much more accomplished,” O’Connor said. “But we knew that if our women’s team sailed as well as they were capable of, we could definitely get on the podium, and maybe even have a shot at the championship.”

On Sunday, the opening day of racing, Harvard’s team, composed of three boats, went 6-3, tying for fourth place with the College of Charleston.

Stanford and Yale both went undefeated in the first round, finishing up the day with 8-0 records. With their 7-2 opening record, the Brown Bears also placed ahead of the Crimson after the first day.

Harvard’s first boat was skippered by sophomore Kate Danielson and crewed by junior JJ Drummond. The duo remained in the boat until the final race of the day, against Tufts, when Chen — who notably had already spent an exhausting three days competing for the Open Team Racing title — stepped in for Drummond.

The Crimson’s second team was led by senior 2024 Paris Olympian Sophia Montgomery, Irfan – who also competed in the Open Team Racing National Championship — and junior Katherine Shin. Junior Zoey Ziskind was the skipper for the team’s final boat, which was crewed by Chen and sophomore Amelie Zucker.

Harvard downed both Bowdoin and Georgetown to kick off the regatta, fostering momentum early. The Crimson then fell 1-4-6 to its historic rival, Yale, before rebounding with victories over Roger Williams, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and Tulane.

Although Harvard was able to tack on a win over Michigan, it dropped contests to its neighbors, MIT and Tufts. The defeats sank the Crimson into fourth place at the end of the day.

Harvard maintained its fourth-place position throughout the remainder of the regatta, finishing with a 12-10 overall record. With its impressive 21-1 record, Stanford was able to secure the national title. Yale and Brown finished in second and third places, with 18-4 and 13-9 records, respectively.

The Crimson ultimately made the final four, thanks to a 1-3-6 victory over the Bears and a 1-2-3 win over Tufts.

Harvard then fell to Stanford and Yale, but rebounded with another win over Brown to close out the regatta. The team’s fourth-place result marks the third straight season that the Crimson women have finished within the top five.

Now, the Harvard sailing team will shift its sights to fleet racing. O’Connor was clear about the Crimson’s biggest point of focus in the fleet format before the next regatta.

“If we can start well consistently, we can be very hard to beat,” the coach said. “Our main focus over the next couple of weeks, other than everyone’s exams, will be to work on having very consistently good starts.”

After earning an at-large bid to the ICSA Women’s Fleet Racing Championships, Harvard will head down to Petersburg, Fla., to compete as the fourth seed in the regatta on May 15-18. The Crimson’s open team will also continue its dominant campaign at the ICSA Open Fleet Racing National Championships on May 19-22.

—Staff writer Isabel C. Smail can be reached at [email protected].

—Staff writer Samuel S. Rudavsky can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @samrudavsky.