Sail1Design Editor

While there are still some conference championships to come, several teams have punched their ticket to this years college sailing Team Race National Championship. NEISA and MAISA TR Qualifiers are complete; they held elation for some, and heartbreak for others, while a few teams seemed to continue to live up to their hopes and expectations. Here is our panel’s final ICSA Team Race Ranking for 2018. Sail1Design will present a detailed TR Nationals preview after all the qualified teams are determined.
Click HERE to see the full rankings with our panels analysis.
Top 5:

1. YALE
2. ROGER WILLIAMS
3. GEORGETOWN
4. HOBART/WILLIAM SMITH
5. BOSTON COLLEGE

College sailing lost a legend last week. Harold (Hatch) Brown passed away last Wednesday and our sailing community is a little less whole. Brown was the Sailing Master and Head Coach at MIT for almost three decades. His contributions to our game live on and his impact can be felt through the spirit of College Sailing today. Brown was 86.
#8 Harvard University won the Thompson Trophy hosted by Connecticut College. The three division, 36 race event was one of two premier coed fleet race regattas last weekend as the ICSA largely switches gears for an abbreviated fleet race focused season. Harvard stepped up and won decisively amid trying conditions. Their 69 point margin of victory was a team effort, but the Crimson’s C-Division boat, Eli Burns ‘21 and Kevin Coakley ‘18 managed, still, to stand out. The tandem put together a scoreline with 11 of 12 races in the top-3, totalling 32 points, 40 points ahead of second place.
#7 Stanford University finished second with 259 total points.
#18 Coast Guard Academy finished third with 264 points. Coast Guard’s Mack Fox ‘20 and Brian Nelson ‘21 won A-Division with 70 points through 12 races. The duo for the Bears managed consistency in inconsistent conditions, finishing with only 2 races in the top-3 but also only 2 races outside the top half.
#9 MIT’s Trevor Long ‘19 with Julia Cho ‘20, Marcus Abate ‘20 and John Ped ‘21 won B-Division with 59 points through 12 races. The Beaver’s B-Division boat scored only one race outside the top half and totaled 6 races in the top-3. Long, Cho and Ped finished extremely strong with nothing but top-5’s in the last 6 races, totaling 14 points in the second half of the event.
“Our results at the Thompson and Owen proved that we several pairs who are capable of fleet racing at the highest level,” said Harvard University Head Coach, Michael O’Connor. “After a very disappointing result at the Fowle Trophy, our entire team is determined to qualify for the other two National Championships. We focused all week on getting good starts that enabled us to be in phase at all times. At the Thompson that skill was important.”

Photo taken from NEISA’s facebook page
#17 Old Dominion University won the Navy Spring hosted by the United States Naval Academy.  After starting slowly, the monarchs of ODU turned it on in the middle of the event and stormed past College of Charleston for the regatta win. After race 7-B of the 36 race regatta, the Monarchs put up 11 top-3’s in the last 22 races across both divisions, finishing second in both A and B divisions. The team effort showed the strength of Jeremy Herrin ‘18 with Carter Little ‘18 in A-Division and Jack Elkin ‘19 with Stephen Guglielmo ‘19 and Gavin Burkhart ‘20 in B.
College Sailor of the Year frontrunner, Stefano Peschiera ‘18 with Grace McCarthy ‘18 and Oliver Parsons ‘21 won A-Division with 101 points. 9 points ahead of ODU’s Herrin and Little, Peschiera, McCarthy and Parsons put together an impressive scoreline of their own with only 3 races outside the top-10 and 8 races inside the top-3.
Lewis Cooper ‘21 with Kaisey McCallion ‘18, Lydia McPherson-Shambarger ‘19 and Thomas Walker ‘21 of St. Mary’s College won B-Division narrowly over Elkin, Guglielmo and Barkhart of ODU.
#6 Charleston finished second with 224 total points, 8 points behind ODU. The home team, #10 Navy finished 3rd with 226 points.
University of Wisconsin won the MCSA Women’s Championship hosted by University of Michigan in dominant fashion. The one day, 9 team event totalled 20 races and sent 4 teams to the ICSA Women’s National Semi-final regatta hosted by Old Dominion University, May 22-23.
The championship event was intense featuring “gusts up to 20 knots” and “1 to 2 turtled boats per set,” according to the regatta report. Racing was cut short due to an even windier and colder forecast for the scheduled day of racing on Sunday.
The Badgers of Wisconsin won both divisions and 14 of the 20 races. The Badgers had no races outside the top 3. Andrea Sullivan ‘18 and Maggie Houtz ‘19 won A-Division and Carolyn Keck ‘19 with Emma Zalog ‘20 and Rebekah Janssen ‘21 won B-Division.
University of Michigan finished second with 42 points. Notre Dame finished 3rd with 73 points. Minnesota finished 4th, capturing the final berth to the Women’s Semi-Finals with 96 points, 2 points ahead of Northwestern in 5th.
#5 Stanford University won the PCCSC Women’s Championship hosted by Stanford University.  The seven team event was sailed with both division competing together on the water. 28 races were sailed over two days. Stanford won big with only 117 points, 70 points ahead of second place UC Santa Barbara. The decisive victory for the Cardinal came behind a dominant effort from Julia Lambert ‘18 and Christina Sakellaris ‘21, both sailing with Victoria Thompson ‘21.
University of Southern California finished third with 193 points and Hawaii finished 4th with 211 points. The top 4 finishers at the event go on to sail the ICSA Women’s Semi-Final regatta held at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, May 22-23.
Tulane University won the SEISA Women’s Championship hosted by University of Texas. Racing was reduced to just Sunday of sailing due to high winds sustaining 25 and eclipsing 30 knots.  The 12 race regatta fielded 6 full teams and one team sailing only in B-Division. The teams finishing first and second place at the regatta would punch their ticket to the ICSA Women’s Semi Final regatta.
Tulane was tough to beat, finishing with nothing but top-3’s throughout both divisions. A-Division was won by Mary Berg ‘20 and Grace Bloomfield- finishing with 9 points in 6 races. B-Division was also claimed by the Green Wave as Catie Cullen ‘20 and Katherine Robinson ‘19 beat out the home team narrowly for the division win.
The Broncos of Central Oklahoma finished second with 26 points, claiming the second and final berth to the semi-final regatta.
Photo by Veronica Owen
Western Washington University won the NWICSA Women’s Qualifier. The 5 team event was a 2 team battle throughout.  Western Washington’s A-Division dominated. Chloe Dawson ‘20 and Camille Ottaway ‘20  scored nothing but bullets in the 7 races sailed. B-Division was claimed by University of Washington’s Shaan Shridhar ‘19 with Veronica Owen ‘18. The B-Division victory by the Huskies made things interesting as Western Washington was only back by 1 point going into race 6A. The Viking took care of business, however, winning all of the last four races of the event. Western Washington finished with 21 points and University of Washington,  26. Both teams will travel onto Norfolk for the Semi-Finals after their performance at the conference championships.
The NWICSA receives one berth to Team Race Nationals which makes the NWICSA Team Race Qualifier an intense event. With 4 teams all vying for a spot at the big dance, the pressure is on. The format was to be a double round robin and the University of Washington Huskies went through its conference twice with only one race dropped.
The Huskies went 5-1 throughout the event, 1 loss ahead of the Oregon State University Beavers. In the first meeting between the two teams, the Huskies won with a 1-2-6, showing their speed. In order for the Beavers to have a chance they would have to take down the Huskies in the second meeting of the teams. The second race was a close battle, finishing in a 2-3-5, about a close as a team race can be on paper. The Huskies took home the narrow victory and an opportunity to compete at a Team Race National Championship.

#1 Yale University won the Fowle Trophy, New England’s Team Race Championship, hosted by Connecticut College. The Bulldogs have been slow to start regattas this spring season. At the Fowle, however, they flipped the script on that narrative and, in doing so, proved that they are the best in NEISA in a variety of sailing conditions. Posting a 10-1 record in the round of 12 and a 5-2 record in the round of 8, Yale was the outright winner in a extremely deep field.
Yale sailed Nic Baird ‘19 with Graceann Nicolosi ‘20, Shawn Harvey ‘21 with KB Knapp ‘18 and Malcolm Lamphere ‘18 with Sonia Lingos-Utley ‘21.
While being crowned the champs of NEISA is noteworthy, it is undoubtedly not the end goal for Yale. This regatta, while a conference championship, is also a qualifying regatta offering 4 tickets to the big dance and a chance at the ICSA Team Race National Championship. The fight for 4th is where this event really got interesting.
At 5:30 in the evening, an hour past the deadline for racing, 3 teams were still sailing a three way sail off for the fourth and final qualifying spot. #3 Boston College, #8 Harvard and #18 Connecticut College sailed a three way, tie breaking round to determine whose season would continue and whose would end. The winner of two races would advance to the national championship. If the three teams all finish 1-1, the sailoff would continue into the evening.
Boston College started against Connecticut College and defeated them with a dicey 1-3 finish where Boston College had to execute a perfect tack on the finish line to win the race. The winning team continued to face Harvard with an opportunity to win both sail off races and advance. Boston college started behind Harvard and were facing a possible play 2 moving up the first beat. Harvard failed to balance completely and BC was able to catch one boat and convert to a winning play of their own. They kept the winning play, the 1-4-5, for most of the downwind before flipping it to a play 2, 2-3-4. They maintained the play two over the last two legs of racing and, despite Harvard’s best efforts, finished 2-0 in the sail off round and will advance to nationals.
#4 Roger Williams finished second with a 13-5 record. An underrated #13 Dartmouth finished 3rd with a 11-7 record.
#5 Georgetown won the Capt. Prosser Trophy, the Mid Atlantic’s Team Race Championship. Similar to the Fowle, NEISA’s championship and qualifier, the top four teams at the Prosser advance to the national championship.
Throughout the event, the Hoyas distanced themselves from the field sailing two round robins with a 6-1 record and one round sailed undefeated. This Georgetown team is not young anymore and they have the speed and boat handling to beat anyone in any condition.
Sailing Roger Dorr ‘18 with Rebecca Fung ‘19 and Marley Mais ‘21, Sean Segerblom ‘20 with Meaghan MacRae ‘18 and Will Logue ‘20 with Rose Edwards ’18 and Caroline Teare ‘21, the Hoyas will be tough to beat in Norfolk come late May.
Again, like the Fowle, the drama of the Prosser occured around the 4th and final qualifying position. However, unlike the Fowle, the conditions were full on with whiteout snow, wind and waves. “It was intense,” said Cornell Head Coach, Brian Clancy. “Racing was never in doubt. It was a cold 10-15 knots out of the North and steady. There was a feeling in the air throughout the event and you could cut that tension with a knife on Sunday.”
“It was by far the coldest regatta in memory,” said Hobart and William Smith head coach. “We put windshield de-icer on the sheets and controls to keep the lines functional. It was miserable with wind chill below 20 degrees and big snow squalls would rolling through causing the race to disappear as we watched from land.”
Notably, the home team, Cornell, beat out  #15 St. Mary’s, #10 Navy and #17 Old Dominion University to grab their first trip to Team Race Nationals in their team’s history. Cornell sailing has been around since the 1930’s and Team Race nationals has been a part of the ICSA championship schedule since the 70’s. 
“We lost our first 3 races of the day on Sunday,” said Mr. Clancy. “And we knew St. Mary’s was coming, we had to win our next race against them. St, Mary’s beat us badly off the line and we had one boat able to hold on and mix it up and get us back into the race at mark one. It was on after that.”
Cornell had to beat #11 George Washington in their last race of the regatta to win the tiebreaker against St. Mary’s and though the two teams finished with the same record, Cornell went 3-0 against St. Mary’s throughout the event and therefore no sailoff was necessary.
“It is a big deal,” continued Clancy. “It is the first time in our programs history that we’re moving on to the Team Race National Championship and it’s a special group. They put in the time, we pushed them and they responded in a big way.  It means a ton to the program, the current sailors, the alums and the larger Big Red Community.”
George Washington finished second at 15-6 including a 2-1 record against #2 Hobart and William Smith Colleges, who finished 3rd. George Washington also made history, like Cornell, qualifying for their first team race national championship.
GW sailed three skippers throughout the event. Senior Kai Friesecke, and juniors Derek Poon-Tip and Andrew Sheerin sailed with six crews in rotation. Seniors Miranda Bakos, Shira Bolub, Belle Strachan, and Matt Homa, junior Connor West and freshman Tanner Chapko all contributed to the cause.
#6 College of Charleston won the SAISA Team Race Championship with a 7-0 record. The defending national champions had been sliding in the weeks prior to their conference championship, but they proved last weekend that they are still the premier team in the South Atlantic.
The Cougars sailed Christophe Killian ‘18 with Elizabeth Pemberton ‘18, Augie Dale ‘19 with Katherine Lounsbury ‘20 and Stefano Peschiera ‘18 and Grace McCarthy ‘18. If this team continues to improve they could challenge for another team race championship as Charleston knows how to peak at the right moment.
A theme at these conference championships, the excitement was found around the last qualifying spot. Unlike MAISA and NEISA, SAISA only gets 2 qualifying spots. That spot was decided by a one-race sailoff tiebreaker between University of South Florida and Eckerd College. The team race season of these two teams came down to one race where USF was able to sail away and claim their spot at Nationals with a decisive 1-2-3 finish.
In SAISA the team race championship/ qualifier is decided on the same weekend as the fleet race championship, SAISA Coed Champs.
College of Charleston walked away with their second championship of the weekend with a 26 point victory over Eckerd. While SAISA only receives 2 spots to nationals in team racing, the top 5 teams at the fleet race championship get berths to the ICSA Semi-final regatta.
Charleston’s victory can be attributed to College Sailor of Year font-runner, Stefano Peschiera ‘18 with Grace McCarthy ‘18 and Elizabeth Pemberton ‘18 in an A-Division victory and Augie Dale ‘19 with Carter Cameron ‘19 and Katherine Lounsbury ‘20 winning B-Division.
Eckerd finished second with 72 points, USF, 3rd with 91 points, Jacksonville 4th with 137 points and Florida State 5th at 146, one point ahead of University of Miami for the last qualifying spot.
Texas A&M University at Galveston also booked their ticket to the Team Race National Championship with an undefeated, 6-0 performance at the SEISA Team Race Championship.  The format was a double round robin with four teams present at the regatta.
John Hanna ‘19, John Jacobs ‘19, Jonathan Sager ‘20, Ava Cares ‘20, Alex Schwinn ‘19 and Lyndsey Sager ‘21 got the job done for the Aggies, capturing the one and only berth for the Team Race National Championship.
Like the SAISA qualification process, both the SEISA qualifiers for Fleet Race and Team race nationals are determined on the same weekend.
Texas A&M won the SEISA Dinghy Championship as well, winning all but two of the 14 races in the event.
John Hanna ‘19 skippered with Jonathan Sager ‘20 assuming the crew role in the A-Division winning effort for 6 of the 7 races. However, the tandem switched spots, the crew, Sager, now skippering and the former skipper, Hanna, in the front. Showing the versatility of the A-Division boat, Hanna and Sager still won the race.
Alex Schwinn ‘19 with Lyndsey Sager ‘21 and Ava Cares ‘20 won B-Division for the Aggies with 9 points in 7 races.
Tulane was second with 26 points, finishing second in all but two races. Texas was third with 51 points beating out Texas A&M (not Galveston) for the final spot to the ICSA Semi-Final Regatta.