After having a rough start on Saturday, the Yale women’s sailing team finished its regatta strong, landing in second place behind Harvard in the two-day Mrs. Hurst Bowl at Dartmouth.

On Saturday, Yale ranked in sixth place, racking up a total of 105 points. In the A Division, Jane Macky ’09 and Marla Menninger ’10 placed 14th out of the 18 teams with 81 points, and in the B Division, Liz Brim ’11 and Kate Hagemann ’09 led the day, finishing first with 24 points. The A team finally found its groove on Sunday, rising six positions to an eighth place overall finish, and the B team kept up its domination to take top prize. Yale’s combined 129 points bested every competitor except Harvard, which won the meet with 103 points.

“I’m happy for the girls,” Abigail Coplin ’08 said. “They definitely stepped it up the next day.”

Brim said one of the major problems on Saturday was the grueling number of races, especially compared to Sunday — Saturday had eight races, Sunday only three. On top of that, she said there were a “few lapses of judgment,” which she attributed to early-season rustiness.

Macky said she had problems on the first day due to a back injury she suffered the previous week.

“I was out of practice for a week because I injured my back,” she said. “I missed the first regatta of the season, and Saturday was the first day for me back.”

Menninger also cited some problems with the troublesome weather on Saturday: there was heavy rain and virtually no wind.

“It was the first time getting back to 40 degree weather in the rain, which wasn’t that great,” she said.

Despite being colder than “some parts of Alaska,” a slight breeze from the north and dryer conditions made for a much more favorable situation on Sunday, Brim said. Menninger said that she and Macky became more efficient, racking up only seven points in the last three races.

“We had a better feel for the water, got off the line, and played the shift better than we did on Saturday,” she said.

Although Yale sailors in the A Division had a few problems during the weekend, the Bulldogs started and finished in the lead in the B Division. Menninger said Brim and Hagemann were very consistent both days, playing the shift and pulling through in each race.

Still, Brim said there were some close calls.

“We had a bunch of close finishes, where we would be behind and then we got some good downwind or cuff or drive that happened at just the right time, so that we could beat the boat we wanted to beat,” she said.

Brim said she was happy with the weekend, having felt confident in each race.

“As a team, we were pretty upbeat in general,” she said. “The conditions were all over the place, but we were pretty good at adjusting. It is easy to get frustrated and get down on yourself, but we really didn’t do any of that this weekend.”

Next weekend, the team will be competing in the New England Single-handed Championships at Roger Williams, and hopefully the momentum from Dartmouth will continue on.

“I only wish that Sunday lasted a little bit longer,” Macky said.