Women's sailing closes successful season without ICSA bid

The women's sailing team is consistently one of Tufts' smallest squads. Graduating seniors Kate Shaner and Amanda Sommi were the two most experienced sailors on the team, and the pair used their experience to mentor the younger athletes — rising seniors Julia Fuller and MaryClaire Kiernan, rising juniors Molly Pleskus and Lucy Zwigard and rising sophomore Sabina Van Mell.

The women's sailing team is not entirely separate from the much larger co-ed sailing team, since they are allowed to participate in the co-ed races but have additional races just for the women's team. In those individual races, the women sailors have finished in the top half of their race eight times out of their 16 races between the spring and fall seasons.

The team's highest place finish was at the Mrs. Hurst Bowl at Harvard University, where it placed second out of 17 teams on Oct. 25, losing only to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. To reopen their season in the spring, the Jumbos placed third at the NEISA Team Race at Yale University on March 6.

Rising junior Molly Pleskus cited the Joseph R. Duplin Regatta during the weekend of March 26 as one of the highlights of the season. Tufts managed fourth place out of eight at the race but easily could have placed second; the second, third and fourth place teams were decided by tiebreak, all posting 6-4 records on the day.

"The Joseph R. Duplin Regatta is a slightly different kind of racing than normal in that rather than one boat from each team sailing against one boat from every other team as it is in fleet racing," Pleskus said. "There are three boats from one team racing against three boats from another team. This gives us a chance to have all three of our women's boats sailing at the same time. Additionally, this regatta was hosted by Tufts at our beautiful boat house in brand new boats."

Pleskus said she was satisfied with the team's overall performance this year, despite the fact that it failed to qualify for the ICSA Women's Championship in San Diego, which will take place starting May 24 along with the co-ed championships. The Jumbos disappointed during the New England Championships at Yale the weekend of the 23rd, and their 14th-place finish eliminated them from ICSA contention.

"Overall, I am fairly happy with how our team has performed," Pleskus said. "The women's team has had a pretty successful season and we have learned and improved greatly through the process. Sadly, the women's team had an off weekend on the weekend of national qualifiers, so we unfortunately did not qualify for Women's Nationals."

Now that the season is at its end, the team must bid farewell to its two senior sailors, Shaner and Sommi. The two will be graduating this spring, which means that the women's sailing team will be losing one-third of its members, as well as its two most experienced sailors. Sommi had a particularly strong season this year, as she was named New England All Second Team Crew for Division III.

The team will undoubtedly miss the production of their two graduating seniors, and their departure will be a big change for the team.

"On the women's team specifically, there are only six of us, and we are a pretty close-knit group due to the amount of time we spend together, so losing two amazing girls is certainly going to leave a big hole," Pleskus said. "But we know that they will succeed in all they chose to do post-college,and we look forward to being able to support them as they cheer us on."

The women's team moves on to the summer in preparation for the next fall season. The team may be small, but perhaps that's what makes them so strong. If Pleskus' sentiments are correct, the team will be able to count on the support of its departing seniors as they move forward.