Sailing Squads Finish Strong at Admiral's Cup

In a race-filled weekend for the sailing team, Harvard’s split sailing squads gathered two top-five finishes and continued their quest to qualify for nationals later this month.

In the most prominent regatta of the weekend—the Admiral’s Cup held at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in King’s Point, N.Y.—Harvard finished fourth in a competitive intersectional field that featured 19 other teams. There was only one day of sailing, however, as Sunday’s competition was cancelled on account of shifting winds.

The format for competition in the Admiral’s Cup was different than normal races, and featured three divisions instead of the usual two. The A and B division were, similiar to those at the University of Rhode Island (URI) and Brown, double-handed boats, while the C divison featured single-handed sailing of a laser (a one-person boat).

In the C division, Harvard got a boost from sophomore John Mulcahy, who finished in fifth place. In the A division, senior Sean Doyle and junior co-captain Michelle Yu finished in eight place.

The B boat of junior co-captain Clay Bischoff and fellow junior Lema Kikuchi, pulled the Crimson up to its fourth place finish by winning the B division.

“Clay was really the one who pulled us through,” Yu said.

The Moody Trophy, another intersectional regatta which features teams from beyond the northeast, was held at URI on open water.

“Sailing at URI is very different from sailing on the [Charles] River,” said junior Dan Litchfield. “It’s open water and wind.”

Harvard, the defending champion, finished in second place, on top-five finishes from both the A and B boats. The Crimson was able to rebound from a disappointing and inconsistent Saturday with a strong final day performance to cement the high finish.

“Sunday we came back and did better,” sophomore Cardwell Potts said.

The A boat of Potts and senior Laura Knoll finished No. 3 in the A division, while the B team of Litchfield and senior Rehana Gubin took fourth.

‘We beat all of the other teams from New England, and we feel good about that,” Litchfield said.

In the Crimson’s worst performance of the weekend, Harvard finished 14th out of 17 entrants in the Dellenbaugh Women’s Trophy at Brown.

The two all-sophomore boats of Caroline Dixon/ Emily Nielson and Jennie Philbrick/Abby Carruthers finished 14th and 15th in the A and B heats respectively.

Despite the fact that the consistently high-performing Crimson did not win the Admiral’s Cup, the weekend as a whole was an important one for Harvard.

“I think the weekend was successful,” Yu said. “It shows the depth of our team. We were able to place in the top five in two intersectional regattas.”