Despite other, more prominent victory celebrations in Boston Saturday, the sailing team refused to be overshadowed.
The Boston Red Sox victory parade extended its route to the Charles River, interrupting competition for an hour at the Erwin Schell Trophy at MIT Saturday. Despite the frenzy, Yale was able to take second place at the two-day regatta. In other competitions this weekend, the Bulldogs nabbed sixth place at the Victorian Coffee Urn Trophy at Harvard, third place at the Nickerson Trophy/New England Freshman Championships at Yale and third place at the War Memorial Trophy at Navy.
“[The Red Sox] came within 15 feet of our dock,” co-ed captain Meredith Killion ’05 said. “Both banks of the [Charles River] were filling up with people, and it was amazing to be around dozens of people just cheering the whole day.”
The entire weekend’s regattas proved inspiring to the Elis, Killion said.
“This weekend was one of the best weekends we’ve ever had,” she said. “We were able to have top performances in four regattas.”
At the Erwin Schell Trophy, Stu McNay ’06 and crews Killion and Sarah Himmelfarb ’06 brought home second place in the A division. Phil Stemler ’07 and crew Hilary Shapiro ’08 notched sixth in B division.
MIT’s tech dinghies proved difficult for the Elis, who are more used to racing on the FJ and 420 boat classes. The Bulldogs would not have placed so high if not for the outstanding performance of McNay, Stemler said.
“If you’re not used to the boat, then it makes starting out harder,” Stemler said. “You’re not as confident as you would be going into maneuvers. Stu did a really good job in the tech. That was really inspiring.”
At the Victorian Coffee Urn, Emily Hill ’07 and crew Meghan Pearl ’06 took fifth place in A division while Kendra Emhiser ’07 and crew Natalie Kitchen ’05 finished eighth in B division.
Both the Victorian Coffee Urn and the Erwin Schell Trophy took place at the Charles River, where the capricious Boston wind made racing difficult.
“The conditions were quite challenging and hard to figure out,” Killion said. “It’s hard to tell what the wind is going to do. It changed direction quite frequently.”
For the Victorian Coffee Urn sailors, the contrast between the wind conditions Saturday and Sunday showed the Elis’ need for more practice in certain conditions.
“[Sunday] when it was breezier we definitely did better,” Emhiser said. “We definitely need to work on light air sailing a bit more.”
At the same time, All-American Molly Carapiet ’06 and Jenn Hoyle ’05 took second place at the War Memorial Trophy in A division. Matt Barry ’07 and Hannah Oakland ’07 finished fifth in B division.
At the Freshman Championships, Zach Brown ’08 and Abby Coplin ’08 earned first place in A division. Rufus Peabody ’08 and Jason Rabinovitch ’08 took eighth in B division.
Yale’s combined third-place finish qualified the freshman Bulldogs for the Atlantic Coast Freshman Championships, but the Elis did not accept the spot because Zach Brown will be sailing in next weekend’s Snow and Satisfaction regatta at home.
The solid finishes this weekend are proof of the Elis’ depth, Killion said.
“This weekend says that we have an amazing amount of depth on our team,” she said. “We can basically send any of our top seven boats to a really good event and do well with everyone we send.”