With the start of the 2012-2013 fall season officially behind them, the co-ed and women's sailing teams have proven themselves with some satisfying results over the weekend, with the teams split up and participating in a whopping eight regattas all across New England.
The eleventh-ranked co-ed sailing team started the season focused on the Harry Anderson Trophy hosted by Yale. Although every team had their eyes set on doing well, it was the waves - reaching up to eight feet high at times - that stole the show.
"They probably sailed in the largest waves that they will see in their entire time in college," coach Ken Legler said.
Senior skipper Natalie Salk and senior crew Amelia Quinn, who is also a Features editor for the Daily, led the team's A-division this weekend at the Harry Anderson, contributing 53 points total and finished seventh in their division. The highlight of their weekend was a runner-up finish in their second race.
Senior skipper William Hutchings, along with junior crew Kathleen Kwasniak, gave Tufts an extra push with top-5 finishes in five of their eight races, tying Harvard with 44 points total in the B division, although a head-to-head tiebreaker bumped Tufts down to fourth in the division.
Overall, facing tight competition, Tufts managed fifth place in the 17- team race with 97 points total, only three behind fourth place's Roger Williams University and merely five ahead of sixth-place St. Mary's College of Maryland. The hosts came away with the victory, as Yale put on impressive performances in the rough seas, especially in the B division, and were nine points ahead of second-placed Dartmouth with 62 points total.
Meanwhile, two other co-ed teams were competing at the Penobscot Bay Open and the Philip Harmon Cup, both hosted at the Maine Maritime Academy. Unlike at the Harry Anderson, the sailing conditions were pristine, and at both events the Jumbos crushed their competition, coming in second and first place respectively.
At the Penobscot Bay Open, sophomores Alejandro Ruiz-Ramon and Sam Madden led the A-division, while junior Julie Pringle and sophomore Duncan Swain headed the B-division. Together, they totaled 112 points - 52 for the A, 60 for the B. The tally was just 8 points shy of first but enough to distance themselves from the rest of the pack. Juniors William Haeger, Paula Grasberger, David Liebenberg and sophomore James Downer led the co-ed team at the Harmon cup, placing first in five out of six of their races for first place overall in the eight-team mini-event.
"We're really happy with how this weekend went," Coach Legler said.
"I think we did pretty well overall.
We're pretty happy with how we did," Liebenberg added. "We could have won and not felt like we sailed well, but we were happy with how we sailed. It was gorgeous sailing [in Maine]."
The women's team, meanwhile, opened their season with the Toni Deutsch '58 Regatta hosted at MIT this past Saturday and Sunday. Led by their A division's senior skipper MarielMarchand and junior crew Sara Makaretz, both of whom are normally the B-division sailors, the Jumbos jumped to fourth-place in their division with multiple high finishes across the 14-race division.
"Mariel is normally our B-skipper, but because our A-skipper was sailing in the [Harry Anderson Trophy], she sailed A-division and did really well," Legler said. "Mariel and Sara were both great."
Heading the B division were the sophomore pair of Kate Levinson and Katrina Miaoulis, who finished ninth in their division but capped off their races with a second- and third-place finish in each of their last two races. Overall, the A-division scored 70 points and the B-division 115 for a total of 185, finishing sixth overall in the 15-team event.
"Our performances bode well for next weekend," Legler added.
Tufts returns to the water this weekend, with a pair of regattas that include the Hatch Brown Trophy co-hosted by MIT and Boston University for the co-ed team and the Ms. Hurst Bowl at Dartmouth for the women's team.
