With berths in the ICSA National Dinghy Championships in early June already secured for both the co-ed and women's sailing teams, the only thing left for the Jumbos to do before that date was lock up a slot in the National Team Racing Championships. Now, Tufts can go ahead and check that off the list.
Thanks to a top-three finish at the 2010 New England Team Racing Championship, the Jumbos qualified for the ICSA Team Racing Championships, to be held from May 29 to 31 in Madison, Wisc., just days before the National Dinghy Championships kick off in the same location.
"We were pretty excited," graduating senior Rachael Brill said. "That's not to say that we weren't expecting to qualify, but we were a little surprised — everything had to go our way, so that was really exciting for us. The first day, it was lighter, so we did a lot of team racing; there was a lot more interaction between the boats. But the second day, it was very windy. When it gets that windy, you go for straight line speed and you get in survival mode."
The Jumbos concluded New England action on the weekend of May 9 with a runner-up showing to the tune of an 8-4 overall record in head-to-head competition against some of the top sailing schools in the region. Placed in Group B during round-robin play alongside Roger Williams, Brown, BU, Salve Regina and MIT, Tufts responded by going 4-1 on the first day, with its only loss coming to BU.
"When no one really expects anything of you and when you're an underdog, that's when you come together as a team," graduating senior skipper Tomas Hornos said. "We weren't expected to qualify. We knew that we could, but we weren't expected to, so all we had to do was sail to our best. Most of the country didn't expect it."
Unlike in fleet-racing regattas, in which all boats set sail at the same time, squads competing in the team racing pit three boats against each other in a head-to-head competition. The team with the best three-boat combination in terms of the total of all finishers wins.
After advancing to the Gold round-robin round alongside three other squads from Group B, the Jumbos maintained their top showing, concluding round-robin races with a 5-2 record which, at the time, placed Tufts in a tie for first with Boston College. This then moved the Jumbos into the final six, with a shot at qualifying for Nationals on the line.
A 3-2 showing in the final six included a narrow loss to Boston College and a defeat at the hands of Roger Williams, which the Jumbos had defeated earlier in the regatta. Had they not fallen to the eventual champion Eagles, the Jumbos would have finished in first place. But regardless of their finish, members of the Tufts team were ecstatic to move on to nationals.
"It's amazing practice for us," Brill said. "The New England region is really competitive, so being able to race against them in the intersectionals each weekend really improves our game and brings us to the next level. We're pushed a lot by our competitors, but it's really healthy for us when we go to nationals."
Racing for the Jumbos over the two-day event included skippers Hornos, graduating senior co-captain Andrew Criezis and rising junior Massimo Soriano, while lighter crews Brill, rising senior Roisin Magee and graduating senior co-captain Jennifer Watkins took sail on Saturday during the medium breeze. Once the winds picked up on the final day, the Jumbos then turned to crews rising sophomore Will Hutchings, rising senior Margaret Rew, graduating senior Nate Rosenberg and rising junior Adam Weisman.
"We had our heavier crews in because it was really windy, and that was a strength for us," said Hornos, who noted that team racing with heavy winds becomes more like fleet racing in practice. "The other schools weren't really prepared, and that was definitely a weakness for them. We definitely out-sailed everybody when the breeze came up, and that's probably because we're better at fleet racing than at team racing."
This year marks the first time since 2006 that Tufts has qualified for co-ed, women's and team race nationals in the same year. In that season, the Jumbos took second in the Team Racing Championships and fourth in the Dinghy Championships, while the women placed 11th in their event. Tufts will be looking to build off of its 13th-place performance at co-eds last year, in which Hornos, Rew and Rosenberg all sailed, earning valuable experience that should come in handy when the Jumbos take the waters in Madison later this month. The co-ed team recently moved up to seventh place in the latest Sailing World's Top 20 poll, comfortably ahead of eighth-ranked Brown by 25 points.
The women, currently ranked 11th in the nation, have already made vast improvements from last season, when they failed to qualify for the national semifinals. But the Jumbos have a tough task ahead of them and must finish in the top nine in the semifinals in order to qualify for the finals shortly thereafter. Competing in the Eastern Division, the co-ed squad will kick off action on June 1, while the women will set sail May 25. The Team Race Championships will take place in between, from May 29 to 31.
"We have pretty high expectations," Brill said. "Placing second at team racing was really exciting for us, and I think that if the conditions are right, we have a really good shot at doing well at team racing. Again, fleet racing depends on the conditions, but if both divisions do well, then we have a really great shot.
"We've been working so hard and been putting so much time into sailing for the past four years; all of our weekends are taken up, so to put this much time into sailing, it'll be really nice for it to pay off," Brill added.
