Coed Sailing Qualifies For Nationals

With the women’s team secure in its berth at the National Championships, the Harvard coed sailing team took to the waters of Lake Mystic, Somerville at the New England Team Race Championships this weekend looking to confirm its own spot at nationals.

The Crimson did just that, securing an opportunity to defend its national championship in Hawaii. In that team race championship, Harvard finished 17-0, while Tufts came in second at 13-4. Those roles were reversed earlier this season at the Friis Trophy; during that team racing event on Lake Mystic, the Jumbos captured first place and the Crimson ended up in third after losing a tiebreaker with Yale.

While Saturday’s results at the Fowle Trophy had Harvard higher, the team was not in its customary top spot. Though the Crimson finished tied with Tufts at 15-2, it lost the head-to-head tiebreaker and came away with second.

“We are not really pleased with losing the regatta to Tufts, but we are relieved to have earned a berth,” senior Clay Bischoff said.

Saturday and Sunday’s early racing in wet, windy conditions seemed to suit Harvard just fine, and the team finished the round robin a perfect 11-0. Sunday afternoon’s final four double round robin featured four teams—Tufts, Harvard, Dartmouth and Boston College. The Crimson went 4-2 on the afternoon, a record which ultimately cost Harvard the win over the 5-1 Jumbos.

“Our starts and decision-making were drastically improved from the Friis, but it was ultimately a bad start that did us in against Tufts in the final race to decide the regatta,” Bischoff said.

While the Crimson is accustomed to winning, the Jumbos are not accommodating opponents. In this week’s poll, Tufts immediately follows the Crimson coed team that has been ranked No. 1 in the nation for much of the season.

Still, the second spot is good enough to give the Harvard a chance to defend its national team racing championship. The top three New England teams earned berths, meaning the Crimson will see Tufts and BC again.

In the meantime, the coed team’s last race before nationals is next weekend at the New England Dinghy Championships on the Charles River.

After that competition, Harvard has a month off before it competes at nationals during the first week and a half of June.

“The training time from now until June will be unbelievably important,” Bischoff said. “And hopefully we can use our home-field advantage to win New England Dinghy Championships this weekend.”

The sailing team competed in one other race this weekend at BC—the Priddy Trophy awarded to the New England Freshmen Single-Crew Champion. Sloan Devlin and Mallory Greimann competed for Harvard amidst wet and windy conditions, finishing seventh in a field of 16.

Though Devlin and Greimann haven’t seen as much time on the water as their more experienced teammates, they did turn in some impressive performances over the two-day competition. A slow start on Saturday was partially erased by two first-place finishes on Sunday afternoon. The positive results came as no surprise to junior co-captain Jennie Philbrick.

“Sloan and Mallory are a great combo and have worked hard all season,” Philbrick said. “We expect great things from them next season.”

—Staff writer Timothy M. McDonald can be reached at tmcdonal@fas.harvard.edu.