The No. 1 women’s sailing team continued its recent dominance on home waters this weekend, winning the Yale Women’s Intersectional. The No. 1 coed team, meanwhile, came away with fourth-place, sixth-place and ninth-place finishes at three regional regattas over the weekend.
The two squads had different goals in mind this past weekend. The women’s team was intent on avenging a second-place finish last year at its own event. The coed team, however, was focused on its younger team members, sending three underclassmen-led groups to compete.
The women’s victory marked the fourth regatta in a row in this fall season where the team has come out on top. The 18-team field took to the waters of the Long Island Sound on Saturday morning where calm wind early in the day delayed action. When Saturday’s six races concluded, Yale found itself 54 points ahead of No. 2 Boston College.
Yale extended its lead slightly on Sunday, completing the regatta 57 points ahead of BC for a comfortable victory. The Bulldogs’ A division boat was skippered by captain Marlena Fauer ’14, along with Eugenia Custo Greig ’14 as crew, and came in a single point behind first place in the division.
“We had a great weekend,” Fauer said. “We had a hard week of practice due to a lack of wind, but we did not let that hurt our momentum.”
In the regatta’s B division, skipper Morgan Kiss ’15 and crew Amanda Salvesen ’14 dominated the action. The duo topped B division by 45 points.
The women’s consistency was on full display this weekend. Among the 24 races across both divisions, the team finished outside the top five only five times and outside the top 10 just once. For comparison’s sake, second-place BC finished outside the top five thirteen times and outside the top 10 three times.
“I’m definitely very happy with our performance,” Fauer said. “Fall break will give us time to relax as a team because we are sailing the same practice schedule, so we actually have a lot of free time when we normally have classes.”
Yale’s coed team did not come away from the weekend with any new hardware, but the team did get to showcase its underclassmen talent. The weekend was highlighted by a fourth-place outcome at the Captain Hurst Bowl hosted by Dartmouth.
Skipper Ian Barrows ’17 teamed up with crews Charlotte Belling ’16 and Meredith Megarry ’17 on the way to an impressive third-place finish in A division. The difficult lake conditions at Dartmouth did cause some issues for Yale’s B division team, led by skipper Mitchell Kiss ’17 alongside crews Sarah Smith ’15 and Isabelle Rossi de Leon ’17. The group managed an 11th-place finish in B division, which dropped Yale to fourth overall.
The fourth-place result at the Captain Hurst Bowl, which was won by No. 2 Boston College, was a promising finish for the young Yale squad, as many other schools sent upperclassmen teams to the regatta.
“This week we were entered in just a few events so it was a good opportunity for the upperclassmen to get some rest during the long season,” skipper Graham Landy ’15 said. “That meant the freshmen had a great chance to sail some good regattas.”
The coed team was also earned a ninth-place finish at the Great Herring Pond Open at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, as well as a sixth-place result at the Firefly/FJ Invite hosted by MIT.
At the Great Herring Pond Open, skipper Mary Isler ’16 teamed up with crew Clara Robertson ’17 in A division, and the duo earned three top-five finishes out of eight total races. The tandem finished in ninth overall in A division. Duplicating the ninth-place finish was Yale’s B division team made up of skipper Will Feldman ’14 and crew Sanam Rastegar ’16.
The sixth-place overall finish at MIT was buoyed by a third-place performance in A division from skipper Eric Anderson ’16 and crew Megan Valentine ’16. Yale’s B division skipper Henry Lewis ’16 and crew Amelia Dobronyi ’17 struggled to find consistency, finishing 10th.
“Of course it’s important to get as much time on the water as you can and that’s especially true when you’re a rookie,” coed team captain Chris Segerblom ’14 said. “It’s great for them to sail some top-tier events and to give them experience at the highest level.”
Both the women’s and coed squads for Yale entered the weekend with added acclaim. Although both teams were already ranked No. 1 in the prior national rankings, the latest rankings saw Yale receive all 50 first-place votes across the two teams.
Looking ahead, the women’s team will prepare for the Stu Nelson Trophy this weekend at Connecticut College. The event will serve as an important regatta in terms of preparing for Atlantic Coast Championship qualifiers in two weeks.
The coed team will also be back in action this weekend and will use the fall break to prepare for the Hoyt Intersectional at Brown. Landy said that the Hoyt Invitational will be crucial in preparing for the type of boats to be used at the Atlantic Coast Championships, which will take place later in the fall.
“The Hoyt Invitational is held entirely in 420s and we generally have been sailing the Flying Junior dinghies,” Landy said. “We’re trying to perfect our speed and boat handling in [420s] since they will be sailed half the time at the ACCs in the fall.”
Both the coed and women’s teams will get back on the water and return to action on Saturday.