Tufts co-ed sailing sneaks into Nationals with fourth-place finish

Just a couple of weeks ago, the ice blanketing Mystic Lake -- where the sailing teams practice -- was still in the process of thawing.

“We were out breaking ice with various tools for the first month and a half of our season,” first-­year Lara Dienemann said.

Fast forward to this past weekend, when the team enjoyed temperatures as high as 70 degrees during the five different regattas in which Tufts participated. The good weather meant even better sailing and a weekend full of important results.

Most importantly, the Jumbos finished in fourth place in the Fowle Trophy. The Conference Championship Regatta, hosted by Harvard, took place on the Charles and featured some tough winds on Saturday, but much milder weather followed on Sunday with only a two-to-eight knot breeze. The regatta’s purpose was to select the top four teams from New England -- a notoriously difficult region from which to qualify. The Jumbos started well but ended round one with six wins and five losses, putting them on track to just miss out on one of the top four spots. However, round two on Sunday provided the team with an opportunity to rebound as it won five out of the remaining seven races. With an 11-­7 record overall, the Jumbos were able to sneak into the top four ahead of Harvard (10­-8). This meant qualification into Nationals and provided what was surely the highlight of the weekend for the sailing team. Finishing ahead of Tufts and also qualifying for Nationals from New England were Boston College, Roger Williams and Yale.

The weekend featured another win for the sailing team as well. The team went 10-­1 to win the Mystic Lake Team Race, a regatta hosted by Tufts. Saturday’s racing was almost nonexistent, as rough winds caused a plethora of breakdowns and protests. Sunday was nearly the complete opposite, as winds failed to pick up enough for a full rotation of races until noon when all of the races were finally sailed. The team’s only loss came to second-place Boston College.

The women’s team also found success at the Emily Wick Trophy, coming in ninth out of 18 teams. The inter­conference women’s regatta hosted by Coast Guard showed trends similar in the weather on the Thames River to the other regattas. Junior Amanda Sommi was one of the sailors who led her boat to seventh in the A division at the regatta.

Sommi believes the fact that the regatta drew upon teams from multiple conferences led to a significantly competitive group of teams. She also explained that, while consequential for ranking within their conference, the regatta ultimately provided an important opportunity to prepare for Nationals qualifiers.

“At this point in the season, for us [the regatta] just is to realize what we still have to improve on ... and to realize what combination of people we’re working in what conditions,” she said.

While she feels the team could have performed better, the result was certainly an improvement on its 17th-place finish at the Dellenbaugh Trophy the previous weekend. The dodgy weather was mostly responsible for that poor result, but the improvement this weekend nevertheless provided an important boost in morale in the lead up to qualifiers for Nationals 10 days from now.

Tufts also entered two teams into the Admiral Alymers regatta hosted by Mass Maritime, with the teams finishing second and sixth out of 13. One of the crews sailing in the A division for the team that finished in second was Dienemann.

Her boat had to adjust to difficult conditions, but it was able to recover as the wind picked up.

Dienemann’s background in sailing is particularly interesting in that there’s very little to it: The first-­year decided to walk onto the team “on a whim.”  Now fully integrated in the team -- which she calls a “family” -- Dienemann sees every regatta as another opportunity to make herself a better sailor.

In the remaining action of the weekend for the Jumbos, the team earned third out of six competitors in a Promotional Regatta called the Tyrell Trophy, hosted by University of Connecticut, on Sunday. More action is scheduled for next weekend, including the Southern 5 regatta, hosted by Rhode Island, and the President’s Trophy women’s regatta, hosted by Boston University. The most important upcoming regatta, however, will be the New England Women’s Championship on April 25­-26, as the women’s team will seek a spot in Nationals.