Harvard Sailing Wins Toni Deutsch Trophy in Strong Opening Weekend

After capturing the Leonard M. Fowle Trophy as the nation’s top all-around collegiate sailing program last season, Harvard picked up where it left off, winning the Toni Deutsch Trophy and adding three more top-five finishes across four regattas in its opening weekend.

The Crimson captured the Toni Deutsch Trophy, hosted by MIT, with 67 points, 43 clear of runner-up Brown, while finishing second at both the Harry Anderson Trophy and the Charles Invitational. Harvard rounded out the weekend with a fifth-place finish at its home invitational on Sunday.

The results marked the Crimson’s first competition since closing last season as the nation’s top all-around sailing program, but with several accomplished seniors gone from that dominant squad, the opening weekend also offered an early test for a new group stepping into larger roles. Notably, the team graduated The Harvard Crimson’s 2026 Male Athlete of the Year, Olympic hopeful, Justin Callahan, and 2024 Paris Olympian Sophia Montgomery. Senior Robby Meek, who won the ICSA Open Singlehanded National Championship last season, is also taking the fall off from collegiate competition to train full-time for an Olympic bid, including training in Australia alongside the Australian national team.

“For these guys, this is going to be their year where they’re going to get a lot of the starts for us,” associate head coach Bern Noack said. “So it was really good for them to get off to a good start in the first regatta and build some confidence.”

Harvard’s strongest performance of the weekend came close to home at the Toni Deutsch Trophy hosted by MIT, which the Crimson won for the first time since 2022.

Co-captain Zoey Ziskind and senior Christina Chen led the A Division, while junior Kate Danielson and senior JJ Drummond competed in the B Division. All four athletes entered the season as returning All-Americans.

Across 20 races, 10 in each division, Harvard did not record a single double-digit finish. Ziskind and Chen opened with finishes of second, fifth, and second before taking their first victory in Race Four. After sixth- and eighth-place finishes briefly slowed their momentum, the duo surged down the stretch, winning three of their final four races to finish with a division-best 30 points.

Danielson and Drummond were similarly successful in the B Division. The pair won four of their 10 races, including the final two, and finished second in the division with 37 points. Combined with Ziskind and Chen’s 30, Harvard finished with 67 points, comfortably ahead of Brown’s 110 and Tufts’ 112.

The win gave the Crimson an early trophy in its first weekend back on the water and marked a significant improvement from its performance at last season’s Toni Deutsch Trophy, where it finished third behind Roger Williams and Dartmouth.

While Harvard relied on an experienced group of returning All-Americans at the Toni Deutsch Trophy, its runner-up finish at the Harry Anderson Trophy offered a first look at a less-experienced lineup.

Junior Harrison Strom and freshman Zia Zucker competed in the A Division, while sophomore Jacob Posner and junior Amelie Zucker, Zia’s older sister, represented the Crimson in the B Division. Harvard finished with 93 overall points, 10 behind Brown and just one ahead of third-place Boston College.

Originally scheduled for two days, the Yale-hosted regatta was effectively decided Saturday. Nine A Division races and eight B Division races were completed before Sunday’s combination of lightning, rain and eventually a lack of wind prevented further racing.

Strom and Z. Zucker opened consistently, finishing third, third, fifth and third in their first four races. Consecutive finishes of 14th and 12th pushed them back in the standings, but the pair responded with finishes of sixth, second and sixth to close the regatta with 54 points.

Posner and A. Zucker boosted Harvard’s stronger divisional score. The duo opened with back-to-back second-place finishes before winning its third race. After an uneven middle stretch, the pair closed with a second and a victory to finish with 39 points.

For Z. Zucker, the weekend represented an especially notable collegiate debut. Despite being a freshman, she was immediately placed in Harvard’s A Division, which Noack described as generally the stronger of the two fleets.

“She did great,” Noack said. “She’s a pretty experienced sailor.”

The associate head coach explained that the pairings are far from fixed this early in the season. Coaches consider past performance and practices, but also account for conditions and the combined weight of each two-person boat. The Crimson may adjust both its pairings and division assignments as the fall season progresses.

Meanwhile, back in Cambridge, Harvard tacked on another runner-up finish at the Charles Invitational, a late addition to its weekend schedule. The Crimson entered two teams in the 15-team competition, with its first entry finishing second with 90 points and its second placing eighth with 168. Dartmouth won the event with 67.

Sophomore Caroline Straw and senior Catherine Li led Harvard’s first team with 39 points in the A Division, finishing inside the top five in eight of their 10 races and winning the finale. Freshmen Pax Huybers and Whitney Pickett made their collegiate debuts together in the B Division and recorded single-digit finishes in nine of 10 races, also ending their day with a victory.

Harvard’s second entry featured senior James Bergstrom and junior Mizuki Yashiro in the A Division and sophomore Grace Naylor and freshman Elizabeth Jacobsson in the B Division. Naylor and Jacobsson highlighted the group’s afternoon with a victory in Race Five.

The Crimson concluded its opening weekend on Sunday at the Harvard Invitational, where lighter conditions limited the field to four races in each of the event’s three divisions. Harvard finished fifth with 138 points, behind Brown, Tufts, Dartmouth and Bowdoin.

Freshman Max Wolfensberger and junior Hanah Youn represented Harvard in the A Division, while freshman Grace Montgomery and Jacobsson sailed in B and freshman Louise Martin and senior Julia Downey competed in C. Montgomery and Jacobsson had Harvard’s best divisional score with 34 points, highlighted by a third-place finish in their final race.

Despite the strong opening weekend, Noack emphasized that the Crimson remains focused on building throughout the season.

“It’s a great start, but again, there’s a long road to go,” Noack said. “The sailors who were there are really good at recognizing that, taking the positives from it, but realizing that, you know, they have to keep going.”

That progression will continue with a different cast next weekend. Strom and Posner will both miss Harvard’s collegiate fleet-racing events while competing at the U.S. Team Racing Championship, opening opportunities for other sailors in the Crimson lineup.

Harvard returns to competition Sept. 18-19 at the NEISA Singlehanded Championships, hosted by Boston College. The Crimson will also compete Saturday at the Hatch Brown Trophy at MIT and the Mystic Lake Invitational at Tufts, while simultaneously hosting the Regis Trophy.

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