Yale Athletics
Yale’s sailors dispersed across the Northeast to five different regattas this weekend, with the coed team traveling to the Boston Dinghy Cup, the Morris Trophy, the Priddy Trophy and the Admiral’s Cup, and claimed second in a field of 18 at the last of those tournaments.
Meanwhile, the women’s team placed second in the 17-team field at the Reed Trophy and secured a berth at nationals in late May, where they will strive to repeat as national champions in the Women’s Dinghy category. This weekend, the women fell only to Boston College, which claimed second behind Yale at nationals last year.
“I was happy with how the team did,” head coach Zachary Leonard said. “[We had] a lot of good performances. We had a really good week of practice last week, and it really showed this weekend. As long as we keep working hard, we will keep getting better and we will be satisfied with our results.”
Yale produced strong performances in both the A and B divisions, capturing fourth and second place, respectively. Representing the Elis were skippers Casey Klingler ’18 and Louisa Nordstrom ’20, as well as crews KB Knapp ’18, Claudia Loiacono ’21, Graceann Nicolosi ’20 and Claire Huebner ’18.
The coed team dispatched five of its top sailors to the Admiral’s Cup in Kings Point, New York — on Long Island. Although the two-day regatta was cut short by a lack of wind on Sunday, the Elis claimed silver overall in the 10-race, two-division competition. Within the A division, Nic Baird ’19 and Sonia Lingos-Utley ’21 advanced into first place after the fifth race, and held on to the position for the remainder of the regatta.
Nicholas Marwell ’21 and Caroline Colwell ’18 represented Yale in the B division, where they finished sixth. Christopher Champa ’18 served as reserve. Overall, Yale accumulated a combined 107 points between the two divisions, barely fending off the College of Charleston’s 110.
After the race, Baird downplayed the significance of the Bulldogs narrowly defeating Charleston, the team that deprived Yale of the coed national championship last June.
“While beating Charleston and especially beating Stefano [Peschiera], who’s possibly the best sailor in the country, is always going to feel good, what we really felt good about was that we executed on the things we had been working on in practice that we struggled with the weekend before,” Baird said.
At the Boston Dinghy Cup hosted by MIT, eight Bulldogs placed eighth overall, tying with Harvard in total score but falling to the Crimson in the tiebreaker. Skippers Malcolm Lamphere ’18, Chrissie Klingler ’20 and Martin Tipton ’21, along with crews Kira Woods ’19, Cate Mollerus ’21, Becca Rose ’21 and Mina Cezairli ’21 faced two days of subprime weather. A cross-river breeze dominated the Charles River all weekend, creating volatile and tricky conditions for sailing.
Nevertheless, Yale’s boat in the A division, manned by Lamphere and Woods, placed second in its division, as did the Eli boat in the B division. The latter boat consisted of skipper Klinger along with Mollerus and Rose. Klinger, Mollerus and Rose led the B division after the penultimate race, but were overtaken by Bowdoin at the end of the day.
Weather conditions in Boston also made for difficult sailing at the George Morris Trophy hosted by Boston University. On the Charles River, Yale was represented by skipper Patrick Buehler ’18 and crew Kathryn Clulo ’21 in the A division, and by skipper Emery Wallace ’21 and Kathleen Wells ’21 in the B division. Overall, the Bulldogs placed 13th at the two-day, 12-race regatta.
“We had a good breeze both days,” Wallace said. “10–15 knots with puffs to 18–20 knots on Saturday and really shifty. Even bigger shifts on Sunday but slightly less wind — about 8–10 knots. Even though sailing on the Charles is really tricky we all had a good time and learned a lot that will help us do better the next time we race there.”
On Saturday, the team of Jonathan Schwartz ’21 and Liviu Mosnoi ’21 finished sixth at the Priddy Trophy in Fairfield, Connecticut. The competition features just one division, and is open only to first-year sailors competing in teams of two. The weather was largely cooperative, supplying the sailors with an adequate breeze throughout the day. Schwartz said after the race that he was pleased with his duo’s performance and “it was a big weekend for the team.”
The coed team heads to Brown this weekend for the New England Coed Dinghy Championship, where its hopes to secure a spot in the Coed Dinghy national semifinals.
Raymond Gao | raymond.gao@yale.edu