Women’s Sailing Finishes Second

The Crimson sailing team continued its busy fall schedule with four regattas throughout New England this past weekend.

While the co-ed squad was split between three regattas over the two days, the women’s team competed at just one regatta, the Women’s Stu Nelson Trophy, and brought home Harvard’s best result of the weekend, a runner-up team finish.

The co-ed squad did not fare quite as well as its all-female counterpart, as the top group from the co-ed team placed ninth at the Sherman Hoyt Trophy, while other co-ed contingents managed an 11th place effort at the Oberg Trophy and a 10th place showing at the Central Series Six regatta.

“We all know our roles and all want to represent the team well in our regattas,” freshman skipper Ryan Byrne said. “We focus on whatever event we are competing in and try to perform as well as possible.”

WOMEN’S STU NELSON TROPHY

The highlight of the weekend for the Crimson was the women’s team second-place finish at the Women’s Stu Nelson Trophy regatta, which took place at Connecticut College. The runner-up effort matched the highest finish Harvard has earned this fall season.

“We are really happy with our performance this weekend,” women’s captain Liz Powers said. “The conditions we faced were different than usual, as we were sailing in a river that went out to the ocean. We therefore had to deal with currents, and a lot of strategy was used to determine how best to sail in the current while dealing with the shifty winds.”

The Crimson was led by its B-division pairing of Powers and sophomore crew Marie Appel, who placed first overall in the division and won six of its 14 races on the weekend.

Sophomore skipper Emily Lambert and fellow second-year crew Alex Jumper took care of the A-division racing. While the duo struggled early on in the competition on Saturday, leaving Harvard in seventh place as a team after day one, the pair of sophomores rebounded nicely on Sunday to finish seventh in its division and earn one race victory on the weekend.

“We were able to adapt to the added factor of the current and perform well,” Powers said. “We also were able to compete well at a competitive regatta with teams that traveled from up and down the East Coast, so we were definitely pleased with our performance and hope to keep it up at next weekend’s Atlantic Coast Championship qualifier.”

SHERMAN HOYT TROPHY

The Crimson’s top co-ed sailors traveled to Brown University to compete at the Sherman Hoyt Trophy regatta and brought home a ninth place team finish among 18 schools.

Junior captain skipper Alan Palmer led Harvard’s efforts with a fifth place showing in the A-division, where the crewing duties were shared among senior Winston Yan, junior Grace Charles and senior Michelle Konstadt.

The same trio crewed the B-division boat, where sophomore Brendan Kopp handled the skippering duties in a 14th place finish.

OBERG TROPHY

Another contingent of co-ed sailors made the short trip down the banks of the Charles River to compete at the Oberg Trophy regatta at MIT. The squad competed in three divisions on the weekend and finished 11th out of 17 schools.

Racing was canceled on the first day of competition, and one of Harvard’s crews suffered an injury, which further set back the Crimson as it competed against the challenging conditions on Sunday.

“Some of the top competition from throughout the region was there,” Byrne said.

“We competed well but the wind was tricky out there on the Charles.”

Junior Teddy Himler handled the skippering duties in the A-division boat, where he was joined by sophomore crew Annie DeAngelo in a fifth place finish.

In the B-division, junior skipper Colin Santangelo and freshman crew Sarah McCuskee placed 14th, while Byrne and fellow rookie crew Alma Lafler took home 12th in the C-division.

CENTRAL SERIES SIX

A final contingent of Crimson co-ed sailors made its way to Boston College to compete in the Central Series Six regatta over the weekend, finishing with a 10th place effort.

First-years skipper Sam Millham and crew Jinyan Zang finished 10th in the A-division of racing, while fellow rookies skipper Nick Waldo and crew Lauren Tiedemann placed eighth in the B-division.

Three weeks remain in Harvard’s fall sailing campaign, and the Crimson will look to finish up the fall season strong to gain momentum for the championship regattas come the spring.

“We have been progressing all season,” Powers said, “and will continue to push ourselves to remain focused and preserve through our remaining regattas this fall.”

—Staff writer Thomas D. Hutchison can be reached at tdhutch@fas.harvard.edu.