College Nationals: Opening round gets underway at Team Race Championship

St. Mary’s City, MD (May 31, 2014) – After the Women’s Nationals finished yesterday at the US Naval Academy, the College Nationals moved to new host St. Mary’s College of Maryland for the first day of racing for the APS Team Race National Championship on the St. Mary’s River. Sixteen collegiate teams from across the nation qualified to compete in this event for the national title and the Walter C. Wood Trophy, awarded to the winning team.

After a Competitor’s Briefing, racing got underway around 9:30 a.m. The sailors had great conditions, with sunny skies and temperatures in the low to mid 70s. Winds were around 7-11 knots from a northerly direction. They were mostly steady with shifts at times. Towards the end of the day the winds lightened up to around 5-8 knots and continued to come from a northerly direction.

The format for this event now includes two more teams than previous years in the first round robin of racing. Sixteen teams all race each other once in the first round. This round determines places 9-16. The top eight teams then advance to a single round robin, which determines places 5-8. The top four remaining teams advance to a “final four”, a single round to determine places 1-4.

With the great conditions today, the competitors sailed a full day until about 6 p.m., with a few short breaks to re-group, hydrate and eat. The race officials and umpires kept the races rolling. They include: principal race officer Chris Gaffney and chief umpire Rob Overton supported by Christine Accettella, Charlie Arms, Don Becker, Jeff Borland, Sandy Grosvenor, Peter Johns, Katie Maxim, Bryan McDonald, Dillion Paiva, Chris Petracco, John Pratt, Richard Sullivan, Steven Wolff and members of the St. Mary’s Sailing Team.

The competitors made it through a total of 102 races today. There are 18 more total races to go in the first round. The competitors sailed on a digital N course, which has a windward mark, a windward offset mark and then down to a leeward mark with another leeward offset and finish upwind. The N course allows for long upwind and downwind legs – prime for team racing. The sailors are racing in both FJs and Z420s.

With a few more races to, some of the top teams still have not faced each other, so there is room for schools to move up or down in the standings. Most notable is that the top two teams after today’s racing, Yale University and St. Mary’s College of Maryland, have not matched up.

The Bulldogs of Yale have only loss on their record so far, against Georgetown University. “We wish we could have that one back,” says Bill Healy, assistant coach at Yale, “But we got over it quickly and moved on.”

Yale is the defending champion of this event, but Healy says, “We are taking it one race at a time.” Healy mentions some great battles that their team experienced today on the water; one notable was with Tufts University.

“A freshman on our team, Ian Barrows, jammed up the boats at the bottom mark and converted a 1,5,6 to a winning 1,2 combination,” he says. Yale finished all but two races today with a winning 1,2 combination, which shows their strength in the racing so far.

Sailing for Yale is: Ian Barrows ’17, Graham Landy ’15, Christopher Segerblom ’14, Amanda Salvesen ’14, Marlena Fauer ’14, Eugenia Custo Greig ’14, Charlotte Belling ’16 and Katherine Gaumond ’15.

Sitting in second place after today is home team and host school St. Mary’s. St. Mary’s has two losses to Stanford University and Tufts University. Adam Werblow, head coach at St. Mary’s names these as two of three notable battles for the team today. The third being with Boston College.

“We are just trying to collect some W’s [wins],” says Werblow of the team’s racing strategy. “First and foremost we want to run a high quality championship and make sure the infrastructure for racing is great,” he adds. St. Mary’s still has two tough races left in the round tomorrow against Yale and the U.S. Naval Academy who is currently in third place.

Sailing for St. Mary’s is: Fletcher Sims ’14, Joshua Greenslade ’14, John Wallace ’14, Kelley Merryman ’14, Nicole DeAngeli ’14 and Allison Shane ’15.

The first warning for racing tomorrow is at 9:20 a.m. The top nine teams have naturally defined themselves in the racing so far, but they are all within a race or two of each other.

Live coverage: http://2014nationals.collegesailing.org
Event website: http://2014nationals.collegesailing.org/aps-team-race-championship/

Day One Results (wins and losses)
1. Yale University, 12-1
2. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 11-2
3. U.S. Naval Academy, 10-3
4. Boston College, 9-3
5. Roger Williams University, 9-4
6. Tufts University, 8-4*
7. College of Charleston, 8-4**
8. Georgetown University, 8-4**
9. Stanford University, 8-5
10. University of South Florida, 5-9
11. University of Wisconsin, 4-9*
12. University of Michigan, 4-9 b
13. Old Dominion University, 3-10
14. University of California at Santa Barbara, 2-11
15. University of Washington, 1-12
16. Texas A&M University at Galveston, 0-12

* Number of races won when tied teams met (1)
** Tie stands
b Number of races won when tied teams met (0)

The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) is the governing authority for sailing competition at colleges and universities throughout the United States and in some parts of Canada. Visit www.collegesailing.org to learn more.

Report by college media. Photo by Tom Brewer.

Background:
The fall and spring seasons of college racing focuses on six National Championships. In the Fall season were the Match Race Nationals and Men’s and Women’s Singlehanded Nationals. The Spring season closes out with the ICSA/Sperry Women’s Nationals (May 27-30), College Sailing/APS Team Race Championship (May 31-June 2), and the College Sailing/Gill Coed Championship (June 3-6). Nationals website: http://2014nationals.collegesailing.org