The inclement weather this past weekend handed a couple of Tufts squads tough losses, and the sailing team was no exception. Competing in the Schell Trophy Regatta at MIT the co-ed team came up short, failing to qualify for the Atlantic Coast Championship regatta, which will be held next weekend at Brown.
The team battled horrible rain and powerful winds on Saturday and finished in eighth place, just a couple points short of qualifying. The Jumbos remained hopeful for a good finish on Sunday and a chance to compete in the ACC regatta. However, the weather conditions proved to be too much for the Jumbos to handle, and the team finished the regatta without qualifying for ACCs.
"Unfortunately, this weekend we had a few too many bad races and didn't qualify for ACCs," co-ed skipper junior Michael Easton said. "It is the first time in a long time that the team has not gone."
Heading into Sunday and dependent upon some great finishes to push the team into a qualifying finish in order to be able to compete in ACC's, the Jumbos were faced with nothing but horrifying winds. Instead of battling to earn a spot in the regatta in two weekends, the Jumbos fought to keep their boat afloat amidst winds that reached up to 30 knots and gusts up to 50 knots.
"It was by far the windiest regatta I have ever sailed in," Easton said. "We just were not able to handle it as well as the other schools who had heavier boats and more experience sailing with their heavy combinations. It was also hard to concentrate on shifts and tactics when you are spending most of your energy on keeping the boat upright."
Although the co-ed team did not qualify for ACCs, they will sail in a couple of different regattas next weekend and have a quality chance at finishing near the top. The Freshman ACCs will be held next weekend at Brown, and Tufts looks to send a strong first-year class to the competition. Freshmen Tomas Hornos, Jennifer Watkins, Nate Rosenber, Andrew Criezis, Barbara O'Connell, and Denise Feirstein will represent the Jumbos and look to finish among the top.
"We are expecting them to do really well," senior women's team captain Emily Randall said. "We have a very strong freshman team this year."
Easton echoed Randall's sentiments and looks forward to the Regattas to come.
"We are looking to next weekend to finish off our season on a more positive note," Easton said. "There are a few regattas that we have a shot at doing really well in."
The women's sailing team competed in the Victorian Coffee Urn at Harvard on Saturday. With a spot in the ACC regatta already secured, the women had no pressure on them and sailed to a third-place finish. No teams sailed on Sunday because of the windy conditions, leaving the standings to reflect only Saturday's races.
In the A Division junior Kaity Storck skippered while classmate Lyndsey Gibbons-Neff crewed, finishing in third place overall. Senior skipper Gretchen Curtis and senior crew Jen Giroux sailed in the B division and finished fourth overall. In the end, Tufts finished third out of 17 teams. The women will now spend the next two weeks preparing for the ACC regatta, hoping to make a splash in the standings.
"The next two weeks we are going to be training really hard," Curtis said. "We want to sail our best at Atlantic Coast Championships."
Along with Tufts, fellow New England teams include Harvard, Boston College, Yale, Dartmouth, Conn. College, and Roger Williams, all national powerhouses. All the teams will be competing to win a Championship in two weeks at the Atlantic Coast Championships held at Kings Point on Long Island.
The women are currently ranked fourth in New England and 11th in the nation.
