Regatta Galore For the Crimson

With five regattas and an invitational in only four days, the Harvard sailing team certainly had its hands busy this past week. Despite failing to capture a first-place team finish for the first time in four weeks, the Crimson had impressive showings both in the Boston area and in Connecticut en route to capturing four top-10 finishes.

“This weekend was the beginning of the more competitive regattas,” explained junior crew Quincy Bock. “I think now, we’re getting back into the swing of things.”

The handful of tournaments provided plenty of practice, and the upcoming four weeks will give the squad ample time to train for the ACC Qualifiers.

HARVARD INVITATIONAL TWO

At Sunday’s Harvard Invitational Two, the Crimson finished fourth of nine teams with 54 points behind Brown, Tufts, and Bowdoin. In the A Division, sophomores Nick Waldo and Jinyan Zang took fourth, one point behind the third-place Polar Bears. In the seven-race set on the Charles, Waldo and Zang captured three second-place finishes.

RICHARD B. ROSS COLLEGE BOWL

A barge transiting across the Courageous Sailing Center’s course mid-race made for a rather interesting turn of events this past Saturday, but the Boston-based Ross Trophy regatta was still a success. Initially planned as a six-race event, the barge’s crossing reduced that number to five. In the A Division, Harvard nabbed sixth place out of 16 thanks to the efforts of senior Colin Santangelo and sophomore Samuel Millham.

MYSTIC LAKE INVITATIONAL, CENTRAL SERIES FOUR

Home turf proved to be an enormous advantage for the Jumbos this weekend at the Mystic Lake Invitational–the Tufts 2, 1, and 3 boats captured the top-three finishes, respectively. The Crimson sent freshmen Ben Lamont and Margaret Fulham in the A division and classmates Ames Lyman and Alice Kenney in the B division, and the rookies held their own in a seventh-place finish. The first-year sailors edged out Amherst and Northeastern by more than 100 points.

SMITH TROPHY

Sailing against 25 other teams last weekend at the MIT-hosted regatta, Harvard ended the 12-race set in 16th place overall with 346 points. Top-three teams Yale, Roger Williams, and Dartmouth dominated the competition with point totals of 154, 160, and 162, respectively.

In a standout performance, sophomore skipper Ryan Byrne sailed with freshmen crews Isabel Ruane and Sarah Pierson to claim fifth place in the A division with 131 points. The race was far from easy, though.

“We sailed in a boat that we don’t usually sail in so we weren’t really used to it,” Byrne said.

Despite the lack of familiarity with the tech boats used, Byrne and his crews managed very well–in four of 12 races the athletes nabbed top-five finishes.

Ruane also sailed in the B division with classmate Caitlin Watson and junior Julia VanderVink. The end result proved not as promising, however, as the group accrued 215 points for 19th place.

DANMARK TROPHY

The Crimson’s Connecticut-bound contingent garnered 272 points on the weekend to secure seventh place at the Danmark regatta.

“It started off really well and kind of went downhill from there,” Bock said. “On Saturday the team was winning by I think 25 or 30 points, but we lost our lead on Sunday.”

But despite the lost lead, Harvard still had an edge on over half of its competition.

At the 20-team intersectional, senior John Stokes, junior Marie Appel, and senior Meghan Wareham took second place in the B division, no doubt the result of seven top-three finishes.

Over in the A division, senior Alan Palmer and senior captain Tedd Himler swapped skipper duties and sailed with a trio of crews in the 16-race set. Together with sophomore Alma Lafler, Palmer nabbed two first-place finishes; Bock and Wareham chipped in solid efforts as well to lift the squad to a 10th-place finish.

“On Sunday we struggled a bit more, but it provided us with a lot of good practice for our more competitive regattas coming up,” Bock said.

MIDWEEK TECH INVITATIONAL NUMBER THREE

Down the river at MIT on Sept. 30th, 20 boats sailed through high winds at the third Midweek Tech regatta. Northeastern dominated and took the top-two slots easily, but the Crimson’s Byrne and Pierson raced to a solid third-place finish with 35 points. Other Harvard boats also finished in the top fifteen.

—Staff writer Molly E. Kelly can be reached at mkelly@college.harvard.edu.