Crimson Finishes Near the Top Despite Weather

Wild weather followed the Harvard sailing team around New England last weekend, but the sailors prevailed, finishing near the top of the pack in three regattas.

The Crimson’s top co-ed sailors spent the weekend in Newport, R.I., sailing at the New England Dinghy Championship. The squad’s seventh-place finish earned it a berth in the ICSA Coed Dinghy National Semifinals.

Meanwhile, some of the younger members of Harvard’s co-ed team sailed closer to home in the Oberg Trophy, held on the Charles River. The Crimson placed sixth in the 15-team field.

The Harvard women competed in the Duplin Trophy, hosted by Boston College, where they also finished sixth overall.

NEW ENGLAND DINGHY CHAMPIONSHIP

The Crimson co-ed squad endured thunderstorms, fog, and a false start to finish seventh at the New England Dinghy Championship, held at Salve Regina.

Seven proved to be a lucky number, as Harvard advances to the national semifinal regatta, which will be held in two weeks.

Despite their false start and disqualification from the regatta’s sixth race, the A-division team of senior skipper Kyle Kovacs and senior crew Elyse Dolbec salvaged a fourth-place finish in the division. The pair had eight top-10 finishes on the weekend, highlighted by a win in the regatta’s second race.

Meanwhile, the B-division boat had just four top-10 finishes, but two of them were wins, in Saturday’s second and third races.

Junior skipper and captain Jon Garrity was joined by sophomore crew Winston Yan on Saturday and junior crew Kerry Anne Bradford on Sunday. The Crimson wound up ninth in the B-division.

Boston College easily won the regatta, finishing 25 points ahead of runners-up Brown and Connecticut College.

DUPLIN TROPHY

The women’s team had a mixed weekend at the Duplin Trophy in Chestnut Hill.

While the A-division team posted an impressive second-place finish, just one point off of the pace set by the host Eagles, a last-place finish in the B-division put Harvard sixth in the team standings.

“We were originally supposed to have this weekend off, but we decided to sail as training for next weekend, which is New England championships,” sophomore skipper Liz Powers said. “The conditions at BC are very similar to the conditions at Yale, which is where we’ll be sailing next weekend.”

Powers was joined by freshman crew Quincy Bock on Saturday, and the A-division team finished in the top eight in each of the four races sailed, highlighted by a first-place finish in the second race of the regatta.

Sophomore crew Michelle Konstadt sailed with Powers on Sunday, and the tandem finished out the regatta with back-to-back wins.

Overall, the Crimson’s A-division crew accumulated just 34 points in eight races.

Freshman Grace Charles, skippering in a regatta for the first time, sailed in the B-division with Konstadt on Saturday and junior crew Olivia Volkoff on Sunday.

“It was very impressive that [Charles] stepped up,” Powers said. “She’s sailing against people who normally skipper and have been skippering for years.”

Though the boat notched a second-place finish in Saturday’s final race, Harvard could only muster one other top-10 finish and wound up in 12th place.

URI easily won the team competition.

Now the Crimson women are looking forward to next weekend’s New England Women’s Championships, which will also serve as the national qualifying regatta for Harvard.

“As a team we’re just going to try to get everything together, to get really focused, especially on the starting line,” Powers said. “That’s something we’ve been working on all season, trying to be full-speed at the start so we’re not playing catch-up from the beginning.”

OBERG TROPHY

After a solid Saturday, the Crimson faltered a bit in Sunday’s races to place sixth at the Northeastern-hosted Oberg Trophy.

“I would say that the regatta was a lot like the weather—unpredictable,” freshman skipper Teddy Himler said. “We were very up and down.”

The A-division team of Himler and sophomore crew Hyunjin Kim sat in first place at the close of competition on Saturday, but ninth- and tenth-place finishes in two of Sunday’s early races knocked the tandem down to fifth.

The pair was still able to record an impressive six top-three finishes in the regatta’s ten races, including a pair of wins on Saturday.

The all-freshman B-division pair of skipper Matt Donelan and crew Becky Fradkin placed tenth in their division. The duo saved the best for last, recording a third-place finish in the regatta’s final race.

“There were some good sailors,” Himler said. “It’s kind of tough going against older kids, but it’s a good learning experience.”

Boston College won the team title.

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.