SAILING: Bulldogs dominate final in-season team races of season
The Yale co-ed and women’s sailing teams put in strong performances to set themselves up for success in their final fleet races of the season.
Yale Athletics
Over the past two weekends, the dominance of the Yale sailing teams has been on full display. Both the co-ed and women’s teams turned in strong performances in their final in-season team races of the season.
The Bulldogs began the stretch with a strong first-place finish at the New England Team Race Championship on April 8 and 9, going 4–1 in their races.
“Winning the New England Team Race Championship was great as it auto-qualified us for the ICSA Team Race National Championships in Kings Point at the end of May,” Nathan Sih ’25 told the News.
The auto-qualification is an important one for the co-ed team, as the Inter-collegiate Sailing Association National Championships are the biggest of the season.
The Bulldogs also took some satisfaction in defeating Ivy League rivals Harvard University and Dartmouth College behind strong performances in light wind conditions from skippers Teddy Nicolosi ’24, Jack Egan ’25 and Stephan Baker ’26.
“Conditions were very light and tricky which made it difficult to race and led to the regatta being shortened,” Baker said. “Despite having less races, we were still able to close out the victory with a race to spare. While this victory helped us clinch a spot in the National Championship in King’s Point Academy, NY and the one seed, we are going to continue working extremely hard to defend the national championship title this May.”
The focus then swung to the women’s team as they competed the next weekend in the New England Women’s Team Race Championship.
The women turned in an equally impressive performance, as they went 15–2 with their only losses coming from Dartmouth. The strong performances earned the Bulldogs another first-place finish and auto-qualification for Nationals.
“The team will now be shifting more towards fleet racing, although team racing will still feature prominently, especially for our women’s team, as they have Women’s Team Race Nationals in two weeks,” Egan said.
The Bulldogs finished out their in-season team races with the Oberg Trophy, a three-division race in a festive Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the weekend before Marathon Monday.
The Bulldogs turned out strong performances yet again, but came up just four points short of another first-place finish. The team was led by Mateo Farina ’25 and Jessi Avila-Shah ’25, who won the B Division.
All ICSA National Championships will be held in Kings Point, New York, in late May.