Neither stormy conditions nor a jam-packed schedule could stop the No. 12 coed sailing team from building upon its recent success: The Jumbos rolled to three top-five finishes this past weekend, including a first-place at the Mystic Lake Team Race Invitational.
"We were really excited to go into the first big team race event of the season and our expectations were pretty high," junior quad-captain Massimo Soriano said. "As a team, we wanted to prove ourselves on the circuit and show that we can be a contender in team racing."
The squad performed impressively despite sending teams to five different regattas this past weekend, finishing third in the BU Trophy at Boston University, second in the Tyrell Trophy at the University of Connecticut and winning the Mystic Lake Team Race. After moving up three spots to No. 12 in the most recent Sailing World release on March 23, the Jumbos might see another boost in the rankings after this coming weekend's results.
Hosting their first regatta of the spring, the Jumbos entered the Mystic Lake Team Race Invitational with high expectations and left with their third victory of the spring. Tufts dominated all three rounds of the competition, going 20-3 overall, against the likes of No. 2 Boston College (16-7) and No. 4 Roger Williams (16-7).
"We were extremely happy about our team-racing squad winning the invite at home," Soriano said. "It makes us confident knowing that we're practicing against a good B-team and can count on them to push us everyday. The fact that they managed to step up and win the event was definitely one of the highlights of the weekend."
Freshman David Liebenberg and sophomores Andrew Meleney and Will Hutchings skippered the three boats for the Jumbos in the team race, while senior Sally Levinson, sophomore Mackenzie Loy, also an assistant layout editor for the Daily, and freshmen Kathleen Kwasniak and Julie Pringle rotated as crew.
Another highlight of the weekend came from freshman Willem Sandberg. In the BU Trophy, the B-Division boat of Sandberg and sophomore Amelia Quinn, also a features editor for the Daily, paved the way for the Jumbos' third-place finish. Sandberg and Quinn came in second out of 14 other B-Division boats.
"That was a really big regatta for [Sandberg]," Soriano said. "We were really psyched to see [him] fight it out right up until the last race to get second in the division."
The most competitive event of the weekend took place at the Southern New England Team Race Intersectional at the Coast Guard Academy, where the Jumbos sent a group including Soriano, senior quad-captain Margaret Rew and freshman standout William Haeger to compete. The squad managed to win seven races but, due to losses to the three other teams that finished with 7-8 records, dropped to 10th place overall after a tiebreaker. Despite this, the team recorded wins against No. 7 Yale, No. 10 Hobart and No. 11 Stanford.
"All of the New England teams sent their top teams to the regatta, so it was definitely one of the most competitive events we get to sail in," Soriano said. "I think the most promising thing — and the results probably don't show it — is that we were always in every single race and, in fact, we were actually leading, at some point during the race, in every single race except for one, something that was definitely a confidence booster."
According to Soriano, the regatta was slated to be a full round robin of all 16 teams, after which, under normal circumstances, several more rounds would take place. Each new round would cut the field in half until only two teams were left. Due to shifty winds on Saturday, however, the entire regatta only consisted of one full round.
"We were never blown away speed-wise and, boat handling-wise, we never felt that we were really off the mark," Soriano said. "The negative thing was being a little behind on executing and finishing."
The No. 11 women's team competed this past weekend at the Dellenbaugh Women's Trophy hosted by Brown, placing ninth out of 17 schools. The B-Division boat, skippered by sophomore Natalie Salk, led the way for the Jumbos, accumulating two first-place finishes and two second-place finishes in her division.
"The conditions were pretty windy but [Salk] stayed pretty consistent throughout most of the regatta," senior quad-captain Meghan Pesch said. "She did a great job. In the A-Division, we were switching skipper-crew combos to try and find one that would work. With the tough conditions we had some good moments but just couldn't put it all together."
Salk said the B-Division boat put forth a strong effort, especially given the tough conditions.
"We really put it all out there and did the best that we could every single race," Salk said. "We definitely stepped it up throughout the regatta. When the wind picked up we actually did much better. A lot of the fleet couldn't deal with hiking as hard and that played into the wind shift big time, so that definitely helped us out."
Ultimately, the rest was out of the Jumbos' hands and in the hands of the competition.
"The competition was pretty strong — everyone had their best sailors out there," Pesch, who skippered the A-Division boat, said. "Its probably the last time for a while that we're going to see some of the teams that are going to be at Nationals like Hobart and Stanford and other out-of-conference schools, so it was a good last chance to see how we stack up against them."
The Jumbos' unrelenting schedule doesn't get any easier in the upcoming weeks, with the New England Dinghy Championships looming on April 16. The coed team will also co-host the Marchiando and Friis Trophies Team Race next weekend with MIT.
"This week we're really concentrating on the team race, getting set for that and building off of the hard work and confidence from the past few weekends," Soriano said. "But once this upcoming weekend comes to a close, we're going to really have to switch gears."
