Sailing Fares Well in Openers

The Harvard sailing team opened its 2010 fall season this past weekend in rather familiar waters, as the Crimson traveled to four regattas throughout New England. With only a few days of practice so far this season, Harvard used the opening weekend to get its more experienced sailors comfortable sailing with each other once again and to introduce its freshmen to the world of collegiate sailing.

“None of our pairs had sailed together since early June, and about half of us were not able to get into the water on a regular basis this summer,” junior crew Alexandra Jumper said. “So we mainly used this weekend to get back into the groove of being on the Charles.”

The co-ed squad provided the highlights on the Crimson’s first weekend of competition, as it finished fourth in the top co-ed regatta of the weekend, the Harry Anderson Trophy, and also notched two victories in two smaller regattas here in Boston.

Meanwhile, the women’s team traveled slightly down the river to MIT, where it took seventh place at the Toni Deutsch Trophy regatta.

“The co-ed squad returned the same core group of skippers from last year,” junior skipper Brendan Kopp said. “So it shouldn’t be as big of a transition for us getting ready for this year as it is going to be for the women’s team.”

HARRY ANDERSON TROPHY

The co-ed squad’s top sailors traveled to Yale over the weekend to compete in the first intersectional regatta of the fall, the Harry Anderson Trophy.

The Crimson finished fourth out of 20 teams.

In the A division, senior skipper Alan Palmer teamed up with senior crew Quincy Bock for eight races and sophomore crew Alma Lafler for four more. The trio collected three victories and two runner-up efforts out of the 12 total races.

Senior skippers John Stokes and Tedd Himler split time at the helm of Harvard’s B-division boat, with senior Meghan Wareham providing the majority of the crewing duties.

The group finished in seventh place in the division, with four top-four showings.

TONI DEUTSCH TROPHY

The Crimson women finished seventh out of 14 teams at the Toni Deutsch Trophy regatta, hosted by MIT on the Charles River. Junior skipper Emily Lambert competed with Jumper in the A division, where the duo brought home a fourth place effort, including three wins and six top-three finishes.

Rookies Caitlin Watson and Morgan Russom split time as skipper for Harvard’s B-division boat, as the pair teamed up with junior crew Marie Appel to finish eighth in the division.

“We lost some major contributors to graduation,” Jumper said. “But we are hoping our two freshmen can make big strides over the next few weeks as they get adjusted to collegiate sailing. They have so far in practice, so we are optimistic.”

LARK INVITATIONAL, CENTRAL SERIES ONE

At the Central Series One regatta, the Lark Invitational, which was hosted by Tufts University over the weekend, Harvard took home top team honors in dominant fashion. The Crimson finished with 168 points over the two days of competition and beat the other eight schools in the field by over 100 points.

A pair of third-year sailors, Kopp and crew William White, finished first in the A division of racing, as the duo claimed 11 victories out of 18 races in the division. Senior skipper Colin Santangelo and junior crew Julia VanderVink earned two victories in the B division of racing.

“The Lark Invitational was a smaller local regatta,” Kopp said. “But we were still very pleased with how we performed and it was good for us to get tuned up for the rest of the year.”

HARVARD INVITATIONAL

Competing close to home on the Charles River in the Harvard Invitational, a small contingent of Crimson co-ed sailors claimed top honors among 12 teams. The A-division pair of sophomores Ryan Byrne and Nicholas Gordon placed third in its division, while sophomore skipper Sam Millham and freshman crew Alice Kenney won the B division of racing with five first-place finishes in eight races.

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