The Tufts sailing team finished a busy weekend in strong fashion, winning six of the seven minor races it participated in and taking fourth place in the weekend headline Hoyt Trophy. While Dartmouth ran away with the victory, taking a decisive lead from early on in the race, the race for second place was close between many schools.
"It was a pretty competitive event," coach Ken Legler said. "Most every team [participating in the Hoyt] ranked in the top 20."
Due to the fairly quiet weekend, most teams were able to enter their top sailors in the regatta, increasing the level of competition. Although he had initially hoped that his team would have placed higher, Legler was not displeased with the final outcome.
"We just didn't have the speed edge that Dartmouth had," Legler conceded. "In the end, we're happy that we hung on to fourth."
Along with a solid performance in the Hoyt regatta, the depth of the sailing team was evident in this weekend's minor races. With victories in six of the seven minor regattas, the Jumbos showed some dominating performances in their sailing.
In the Team Race Invite at Boston College, Tufts second boat, with sophomores J.R Maxwell and Dean Madsen, dominated the regatta with a ten-point victory over the second place Harvard boat. The two Jumbos won all but one race that they participated in.
Maxwell and Madsen were not the only Jumbos with breakthrough performances this weekend. Junior Walter Smith and freshman Esra Yalcinalp also blew away the competition in their part of the Northern Series regatta at Dartmouth. This duo also won all but one of the races that they participated in, helping lead Tufts to an 11-point win over second place Dartmouth.
"For this weekend, the sailing went great," Legler said.
With a strong overall showing in all of its races, it is most likely that the Tufts co-ed team will hold on to its third place ranking in the national polls (rankings as of Oct. 8). But placing behind top spot holders Harvard and Dartmouth in the Hoyt regatta will not allow for the Jumbos to increase their standing.
While the co-ed team has remained in the top three in national rankings, the recent slump of the women's team has caused Tufts to fall to the eighth spot in women's sailing. The slide continued on this weekend for the women in the Stu Nelson regatta. The women took a fourth place finish as well, which was below the expectation of the coach, yet still strong enough to qualify the team for Atlantic Coast championships at the end of the season.
"The race was not as good as I had hoped for the women," Legler said. "We're still struggling in the women's team and we're going to need to start getting it together."
Despite their recent decline in sailing strength, the coach is still confident that the women's team will rebound soon enough, a necessity since the women's championships are coming up.
The next three weekends are an important time for the women's team. The Jumbos will be competing in the New England regattas that will serve as an informal championship race.
"Its time for the women's team to turn it on," Legler said. "I think we can compete with anyone in the country."
Tufts will face other challenging races this coming weekend as well. Three major regional events are in the sailing team's future this weekend. Other than the women's race, Tufts will participate in the Shell Trophy and the Knickerson Trophy. Both are races that could qualify the teams for Atlantic Coast Championships. The Shell will qualify the top finishers of the co-ed team, but the Jumbos have already qualified prior to this upcoming weekend.
The most important race the team is entering is the Knickerson Trophy. It is a freshman race invite, meaning that the top six finishing teams will earn a spot in the championships of freshman racing. Tufts has never missed qualifying for this event and hopes to continue the trend.
"We're going to be challenged with only six spots and nine teams," Legler said.
