Hoyas Win America Trophy

The Georgetown University Sailing Team had its coed fleet racing championship last weekend.  The regatta is called the America Trophy and features the top 18 teams from the MAISA conference.

The Hoyas simply dominated the event from start to finish.  The regatta was sailed right off the Robert Crown Sailing center at the Naval Academy in both 420’s and FJ’s.  Winds and current varied throughout the regatta but the Hoyas showed they were ready for all conditions.  In A division Seniors Chris Barnard and Hilary Kenyon (16 races) and Leslie Cowen (2 races) had only one race out of the top 5.  They won A division by 38 points.  In B division Freshman Nevin Snow and Seniors Tory Lynch (16 races) and Leslie Cowen (2 races) finished 2^nd in B.

Top 5 from America Trophy

1. Georgetown      115 points

2. Navy                145 points 

3. Old Dominion    158 points 

4. Hobart              187 points 

5. St. Mary's         221 points

 This marks the 7^th time in a row that the Hoyas have finished in 1^st at the Spring Conference Championship.  The Hoyas now move on to the semi-finals round of the ICSA Coed National Championship as the #1 seed in the East region.  The ICSA Semifinals will be held April 27-28 at Hampton University.

According to the April 17 Sailing World Rankings the Hoyas coed team is ranked #1 while the women are ranked #4. 

This weekend the Hoyas will be competing in two events.  The Women’s Team will have its conference championship/ nationals qualifier at Hampton University.  The  coed team will be hosting the Robert P. Arrigan Memorial Regatta at the Washington Sailing Marina.  

Hoyas win Prosser Trophy – Qualify for ICSA Team Race National Championship for 12th time in 13 years.

The Georgetown University Sailing Team had its first nationals qualifier last weekend for Team Racing.  The Prosser Trophy features the top 8 teams from the Middle Atlantic Conference competing in a double round robin format.  The top 3 teams move on to the National Championships.  The Prosser Trophy was held at Hobart and William Smith College and sailed on Seneca Lake.  The regatta featured the most extreme conditions imaginable.  Day one got off to a slow start with the wind filling in very late in the day.  Only half of the first round was completed but the Hoyas excelled in the very light winds finishing the day 6-0.  Day 2 was the exact opposite.  Winds blew 30-40mph and the waves on Seneca were 4-5 feet.  This made sailing in the 40 degree water difficult and dangerous.  Racing was postponed till 1230 when the wind dies to 25-35mph.  The format for the regatta meant that sailing would have to continue until sundown, which was 741PM.  Luckily the Hoyas had a very deep bench and used every sailor to help survive the conditions.  The second round robin finished at 630PM leaving time for a final four.  The Hoyas dropped a race each to Navy and Old Dominion and finished the round robins with a 12-2 record, which had them tied with St. Mary’s College.  For the final four the wind shifted from the south to the north, which made the wind shifts very unpredictable and extreme.  The Hoyas started out by beating Hobart then losing a close race to Navy which set up a winner take all match with St. Mary’s.  With the regatta on the line the Hoyas rose to the occasion easily beating St. Mary’s for the third time and finishing with a 14-3 record to win the Prosser.  St. Mary’s ended up 2^nd and Navy 3^rd. 

The Team Race National Championships will be hosted by Eckerd and USF May 25-27. 

Sailing for the Hoyas this Weekend were

Skippers: Chris Barnard, Nevin Snow, Alex Post

Crews: Hilary Kenyon, Tory Lynch, Katia DaSilva, Annalee Leggett, Katie Olsen, Sean Golden, Nancy Hagood, Leslie Cowen, John Andril.

This weekend the Hoyas will be competing at the America Trophy @ Navy which is the conference Coed Fleet Racing Championship.  

The Georgetown University Sailing team is now in the heart of their spring season after four weekends of competition.  So far the Hoyas have competed in nine regattas.  The Results are as follows

The Hoyas started the spring season with the Charleston Spring Intersectional.  This is a great early season regatta to get an idea about where the teams skill level is overall.  The Hoyas sent a talented group that had Michael Schalka and Katie Olsen in A division and John Andril and Isabelle Luzuriaga in B division.  Charleston can be one of the more difficult venues in college due to its strong current and potentially strong sea breeze.  The Hoyas had their good races and a few bad ones in the event but were able to finish 9^th out of the 18 team field. 

The following weekend the Hoyas began their Team Race schedule for the Spring with the Bob Bavier Team Race and the Tom Noble Team Race.  The Bavier is the first team race intersectional of the spring and features 10 of the best teams in the country.  The Hoyas battled with Yale, Stanford and the College of Charleston for the top spot and the Bavier and in the end prevailed with a 10-2 record.  Sailing for the Hoyas were skippers Chris Barnard, Alex Post and Nevin Snow with crews Hilary Kenyon, Katia DaSilva, Tory Lynch, Leslie Cowen and Nancy Hagood. 

At the Tom Noble Team Race a combination of our women’s team and coed team competed against five conference foes.  The Hoyas ended up 4^th.  Sailing for the Hoyas were skippers Amanda Taselaar, MaryKate Mezzetti, Sam Oldroyd and Michael Schalka with crews Maisie Totaro, Genevieve Burgoyne and Eliana Michaels.

On March 2-3 the Hoyas competed in two more team races and one Women’s Regatta.  At the Graham Hall Team Race at Navy the Hoyas competed against the top 16 team race schools and finished in 3^rd with a 17-6 record.  Sailing for the Hoyas were skippers Chris Barnard, Alex Post and Nevin Snow with crews Hilary Kenyon, Katia DaSilva, Tory Lynch, and Katie Olsen.  At the Georgetown Team Race the Hoyas competed against five other MAISA schools to finish in second overall with a 12-2 record.  Sailing for the Hoyas at that regatta were skippers Sean Golden, Dan Eichler, Michael Schalka and Greg Martinez with crews Annalee Leggett, Courtney Sherman, and Eliana Michaels.  

The Women’s team began their spring season by competing at the Charleston Women’s Intersectional.  This 9 team event turned out to be a battle among Yale Georgetown and the College of Charleston for first place.  The Hoyas ended up 3^rd but won A division.  Sailing for the Hoyas were Nancy Hagood and Leslie Cowen in A and Amanda Taselaar Isabelle Luzuriaga and Maisie Totaro in B. 

After a week of practice at the College of Charleston during Spring Break the Hoyas returned to the water last weekend to compete in three events.  At the John Jackson ’03 Memorial Team Race Regatta the Hoyas ended up 4^th with a 5-5 record.  Sailing for the Hoyas were Sean Golden, Dan Eichler, Michael Schalka and Matt Gowell with crews Annalee Leggett, Courtney Sherman, and Eliana Michaels.  The regatta was won by Stanford. 

At the St. Mary’s Team Race the Hoyas competed against the top 10 team racing teams in the country and finished 3^rd overall behind Stanford and Boston College with a 9-5 record.  Sailing for the Hoyas were Chris Barnard, Alex Post and Nevin Snow with crews Hilary Kenyon, Katia DaSilva, Tory Lynch, and Katie Olsen. 

At the Navy Women’s Intersectional the Hoyas placed 5^th out of 20 schools.  The Hoyas finished 4^th in B division with Amanda Taselaar and Isabelle Luzuriaga and 9^th in A with Nancy Hagood and Leslie Cowen.

This weekend the Hoyas will compete at the Trux Regatta at Navy and the St. Mary’s Women’s Intersectional.

The Hoyas coed team is currently ranked #2 in the country and the Women’s team is 4^th. 

 Please Save the Date! 

 The coed team has been ranked #1 since May 2, 2012.

Coed top 10

Women's Top 10

Georgetown finishes 3^rd at the ICSA Match Race National Championship in Fort Worth, TX.

The Georgetown Sailing team competed in its first ever ICSA Match Race National Championship November 16-18 in Fort Worth, TX. 

Match Racing is relatively new to college sailing starting in 2010 but has been around for over a hundred years.  The format of a college match race is identical to the America’s Cup.  Each race features just two boats sailing against each other.  The Hoyas had tried to qualify for the regatta before but were hampered by the fact that they weren’t able to practice in the type of boats used in the competition.  This year, the Hoyas have a freshman sailor Nevin Snow who is one of the top ranked match racers in the United States.  Nevin and his crew of Alex Post, Matt Gowell and Hilary Kenyon finished 2^nd at the MAISA Conference Championship which earned them a berth at the Nationals which were sailed at the Fort Worth Boat Club in J22 sailboats. 

The regatta format consisted of a single round robin amongst the top teams that eventually would lead to a final four and then a champion.  The Hoyas looked strong from the start and easily dispatched strong teams from Eckerd, Yale and St. Mary’s.  The Hoyas lost a close race to Tufts and then another to South Florida in a fluke race where the Hoyas led by 20 lengths near the finish but had their wind die and watched helplessly as South Florida took a wind gust over the line to win by 1 second.  The loss to South Florida put the Hoyas in a tie with St. Mary’s and Tufts.  Each team had an identical 7-2 record.  The tie breaker put St. Mary’s as the 1 seed Tufts as 2 and Gtown as 3.  This meant that the final four had St. Mary’s vs. 4^th seed Yale and Tufts vs. Georgetown.  Yale upset St. Mary’s and waited for the winner of Georgetown v. Tufts in the final.  In a series of really close and competitive racing the Hoyas narrowly lost to Tufts.  The disappointed Hoyas then faced St. Mary’s in the petit finals for 3^rd place overall.  The Hoyas rallied to beat St. Mary’s 2-1 to finish 3^rd.  Tufts easily defeated Yale to win the Championship. 

A huge thanks is owed to John Camera '01.  John lent the Hoyas his J22 sailboat to practice in and even spent a day on the water with the team.  Without John's help the team would not have done so well.

Georgetown Women finish 6^th at the Women’s Atlantic Coast Championship

With the Coed Atlantic Coast Championship cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy the Women’s Atlantic Coast Championship took center stage on Nov 10-11.  The top 18 women’s teams on the East Coast, which included 14 of the top 15 teams in the country, took part in the event held at Connecticut College in New London, CT. 

The first day of the regatta saw really light and shifty winds made even harder to figure out by a strong current on the Thames River.  In A div Junior Nancy Hagood and Senior Leslie Cowen seemed to have it all figured out.  The duo sailed consistently and without mistakes to end the day in first overall in A.  The B div team of Amanda Taselaar and Katia DaSilva struggled in the light and shifty conditions and were generally in the bottom part of the fleet.  On Sunday, the roles were reversed.  The wind was a lot stronger and even shiftier than the day before and A div. struggled to stay consistent.  Nancy and Leslie had trouble staying in phase and playing the current properly.  In B div. Amanda and Katia sailed much better staying in the top 5 for most of the day.  The Hoyas won the last race in A and B and moved up to 6^th overall, beating #1 ranked Yale by a few points.  Dartmouth won the event with BC finishing 2^nd. 

Georgetown Sailors compete at ICSA Singlehanded National Championships in Long Beach, CA. 

Senior Chris Barnard takes 2^nd place in the Men’s Division

Junior Nancy Hagood takes 5^th in the Women’s Division

Three Georgetown Sailors competed at the Men’s and Women’s ICSA Singlehanded national championship in Long Beach, CA from November 2-4.  The regatta features the top 18 men and women competing in Lasers and Laser Radials respectively. 

The Hoyas have had a lot of success at the Men’s Championship winning the event 4 times (Andrew Campbell 02, 05, 06, and Charlie Buckingham in 2010).  This year Senior Chris Barnard and Freshman Nevin Snow qualified for men’s division and Junior Nancy Hagood qualified for the Women’s event – the first time a Hoya woman has made the event since 2005.

The regatta was sailed in beautiful conditions off Belmont Pier in Long Beach, CA.  Both events featured sailors who had either competed in the Olympics or will be sailing in the 2016 games.  Suffice it to say the competition was intense.

The odds on favorite in the Men’s competition was Juan Maegli a 25 year old senior from the College of Charleston who has represented Guatemala in the past two Olympic Games finishing 9^th in London.  Georgetown Senior and reigning college sailor of the year Chris Barnard was not intimidated by Juan’s credentials and that showed in the early results.  Chris won the first two races of the competition and built up a small lead over Juan going into the second day of the 3 day event.  On day 2 the regatta quickly became a battle of just two boats with Juan and Chris trading firsts throughout the day.  Chris made one mistake fouling in a race and ended up losing points to Juan.  This put Chris in a tough position going into the last day.  With two races left he had to make up 17 points on Juan.  Chris match raced Juan in the prestart and forced him into an early foul.  Juan quickly did his penalty turns and then Chris was right back on him and forced Juan into a bad start at the unflavored end of the starting line.  As luck would have it though Juan was able to escape the fleet on the first leg and ended up beating Chris in the race which gave him the Championship with one race left to sail.  Chris easily finished 2^nd overall and cemented himself as the best all-around sailor in college.  Chris’ teammate Nevin Snow was a little off the pace of the top boats but did finish tied for 7^th which was the top finish for a Freshman at the event.

In the Women’s event Nancy Hagood sailed probably her best Laser regatta ever and finished 5^th overall.  Nancy was consistent and smart throughout the event. 

Georgetown Wins Coed Conference Championship

The Georgetown University Sailing Team competed in two regattas last weekend.  The results are as follows

War Memorial @ Kings Point

A div. 1^st w/ 73 points Chris Barnard / Hilary Kenyon, Leslie Cowen, Sean Golden

B div. 1^st w/ 51 points Nevin Snow / Tory Lynch, Nancy Hagood

The War Memorial Regatta is the MAISA Coed Conference Championship.  The regatta features the top 18 teams from the Conference and the results not only determine conference bragging rights; they serve as a qualifier for the Fall Atlantic Coast Championship.  The regatta did not start well for the Hoyas as the fickle winds of Long Island Sound made luck sometimes win out over skill.  In A division Chris Barnard and Hilary Kenyon would almost always be in 1^st at the first mark but shifty and unstable winds led to a lot of lead changes and the Hoyas often fell out of the top 5.  In B division Nevin Snow and Tory Lynch were very consistent and finished mainly in the top 5 in each race.  At the end of the first day the Hoyas held a slim 10 point lead over Hobart.  Sunday was a different story.  Hurricane Sandy was throwing high winds and waves to Long Island Sound and the event organizers got everyone on the water early and ran the remaining 17 races quickly.  The Hoyas had an excellent day of racing.  In A division Chris Barnard sailing alternately with Leslie Cowen and Sean Golden put a string of races together that was simply amazing.  The A div team finished 1^st or second in the last eight races.  B div was equally impressive with Nevin Snow and crews Tory Lynch and Nancy Hagood winning four races in a row to start the day and never finishing worse than fourth.  The Hoyas had the regatta clinched with 3 races left. 

Overall Results (Top 5 of 18)

1. Georgetown       124

2. St. Mary’s            173

3. Navy                     205

4. Hobart                 210

5. Old Dominion    228

Top 9 Regatta @ New York Maritime

A div. 2^nd w/ 62 points Nancy Hagood / Leslie Cowen,  Alex Post / Katie Olsen

B div. 1^st w/  109 points Sean Golden, Greg Martinez / Annalee Leggett

The Hoyas won the Top 9 regatta for the Fall season.  The Top 9 features the top nine schools from MAISA and is generally a regatta that features the 2^nd string from the top nine schools with the first string competing at the war memorial.  The Hoyas battled it out with Navy and St. Mary’s throughout the 28 race regatta and only moved into 1^st overall after 26 races.  Each division sailed very well.

 The new national rankings are out and the Hoya Coed team is still ranked #1 

 Also receiving votes: Bowdoin (19 points), Rhode Island (7), Miami (Fla.) (5), Virginia (3)

Also receiving votes: MIT (31 points), Old Dominion (21), Coast Guard (20), Eckerd (14), South Florida (11), Hobart/Wm. Smith (10), Connecticut College (7)

19 coaches voted in this poll: Bowdoin, Brown, Charleston, Coast Guard, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Eckerd, Georgetown, Hobart/Wm. Smith, Miami (Fla.), MIT, Navy, Old Dominion, Roger Williams, Rhode Island, Stanford, SUNY Maritime, Washington College