Sailing victorious at Fairfield, posts competitive performances elsewhere

Tufts was largely able to escape the local fervor surrounding the Red Sox run to the World Series, but it could not fully escape the weekend's prevailing winds. Instead, the Jumbos were caught in a swirling October breeze that affected everyone from college sailors to kickers in the NFL.

One Tufts group that did not get out of town competed at the Oberg Trophy, a New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) regatta, at Northeastern. Tufts' A, B and C division boats battled through the wind, which was especially strong on Sunday, to score 223 points overall, good for third of 20 teams.

In the A division, senior skipper and co-captain Jack Bitney and sophomore crew Maria Brush racked up three straight first-place in races 10–12 to ultimately post 82 points, good for fourth place. The C division team was comprised of senior skipper Samuel Shea and first-year crew Ansgar Jordan for races 1–10, with sophomore skipper Juliana Testa partnering with sophomore Lindsay Powers for races 11–13. The group racked up 84 points for fifth place in its division. Meanwhile, the duo of senior skipper Chris Keller and junior crew Duke Saunders finished in first place in the B division, claiming the lead for good in the eighth race of the weekend.

Bitney spoke about how he and Saunders used the rough weather to their advantage at the Oberg Trophy.

"On the first day, winds were puffy and shifty which makes sailing tricky in terms of where you should go on the course," Bitney said. "However, where we sail in practice was a lot like sailing at Oberg, so we are pretty used to pretty shifty and puffy conditions which I think gave us an advantage while we were there. On the second day, it was even windier and even shiftier, and I think we performed better. I would say we prepared for wacky conditions, and that helped us do well."

Meanwhile, the Fairfield Cup was held in the quieter waters of Connecticut. Tufts' A and B division fleets emerged victorious from the 11-team field after eight races. In particular, the A division boat, maneuvered by senior skipper Andrew Savage and senior crew KK Newsham, shone with victories in six races to top the standings by 12 points, 16 ahead of second-place Vermont. The B division team of sophomore skipper Evan Robison and first-year crew Kristina Puzak were also competitive, racking up 21 points for third place in its division.

Elsewhere, the Yale Women’s regatta was called off at noon on Sunday due to gusts reaching speeds of 30 knots. Nevertheless, the sailors completed 10 races at Conn. College. Sophomore skipper Talia Toland sailed with senior crew Taylor Hart in the A division, while junior skipper Charlotte Lenz partnered with senior co-captain Sabina Van Mell and sophomore Marley Hillman in the B division. Each Tufts boat came away with a victory, and the team finished in ninth place overall with 139 points.

Tufts faced an impressive field that included a slew of local and distant rivals, including Harvard and Stanford, at the Fiske-Harriman-Sleigh Trophy Coed Showcase, hosted by St. Mary’s. A quartet of veteran sailors made up Tufts' A division team, including senior co-captain Ian Morgan, seniors Florian Eenkema van Dijk and Jackson McCoy, as well as junior Emma Clutterbuck. Together, they took second place in the fifth race of the weekend and claimed 16th place overall. Morgan also competed with senior Cam Holley and sophomore Wells Drayton in the B division, securing a third-place finish in the penultimate race of the weekend. Collectively, the Jumbos finished with 420 points, good for 15th in the talented 18-team field.

"In the bigger regatta during the weekend, the Showcase at St. Mary's in Maryland, it was really breezy," Robison said. "We had at least one capsize in our boat, which made people really cold, so they had to sit out a race because they were cold. That was just a tough regatta overall."

Robison explained that the regatta will help the team prepare for its spring season.

“It is basically the equivalent of the [NEISA Coed Championship], so pretty much all of the teams that were at this regatta will be [there]," Robison said. "In the spring there is a national championship while in the fall there is no national championship, but St. Mary's was kind of a warmup for it, so it was just to see where people were at the end of the season. We made it to the final. We got 15th overall, which we could have done a little better if we had different weather conditions, but we tried our best. Hopefully, we can improve on that going into the spring season, which is mostly team racing."

Tufts' fall campaign continues at the Victoria Urn Trophy in Brunswick, Maine this weekend. The team will also host the Dark of Night regatta and compete at the 78th Professor Schell Trophy hosted by Dartmouth.