SEASON RECAP: Crimson Continues To Keep Pace During Up-And-Down Campaigns

It took just a single week for the Harvard sailing team to show what it could do when at its best during the 2006-07 season, but it wasn’t until year’s end that the team to put together similar results on a consistent basis.

During the Crimson’s second week of action, both the co-eds and the women’s squad notched first-place finishes that catapulted Harvard into a fall season that would hold just four more first-place nods but did result in 18 top-three finishes overall.

Though sophomore women’s captain Megan Watson and sophomore skipper Roberta Steele managed only sixth and seventh place, respectively, in the New England Women’s Singlehanded Championships in September, it was the men’s singlehanded performance the following month that truly showcased the Crimson’s talent at the top.

Senior and former men’s captain Clay Johnson and junior Kyle Kovacs issued a dominating performance at the Men’s Singlehanded Championships, finishing in first and second places. Freshman Drew Robb also took seventh place in the 29-sailor field just over a month into his collegiate sailing career.

“I was really pleased with how I sailed,” Johnson said after the victory, in which his combined point total with Kovacs was 13 more than that of the third-place finisher. The showing sent both skippers to nationals, the fourth such honor of Johnson’s decorated career.

The fall campaign featured a rousing Crimson performance in late October, when Harvard took second place in three regattas in a single two-day span.

The following weekend, Johnson and Kovacs had their shot at nationals. Having never finished on top in the event in his three previous tries, Johnson was once again denied the top spot in his senior season. He and Kovacs took third and fourth place, respectively.

“I was a little disappointed because I wanted to continue to improve,” Johnson said of the finish. “Both Kyle and I trained pretty hard. I wanted to win overall.”

The winter vacation did the Crimson well, as the team took first place in the spring’s opening regatta. A third-place finish in late March and a first-place showing the following weekend were a few of Harvard’s highlights as the weather warmed up, but the Crimson’s best performances came in late April and early May, including a second-place finish at the Women’s New England Championships that secured a nationals berth.

The race featured strong performances from Watson and former women’s captain Christina Dahlman, as well as Steele and sophomore crew Lauren Brants in the B-division.

A similarly-strong third-place conclusion came the next weekend at the New England Dinghy Championship thanks to one of the final efforts in the career of senior crew Kristen Lynch, who sailed for one of the last times with Johnson. It was the performance of co-ed captain Kovacs, however, that was the focal point of the regatta.

“Kyle sailed really well yesterday, really fast,” senior skipper Matt Knowles said after the race. “He had some good starts all weekend.”

The Harvard women concluded the season fourth overall at nationals, while the Crimson co-eds took fourth and tenth places at the Team Race and co-ed dinghy championships, respectively.

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.