Sailing Posts Trio of Top-Five Finishes

It was divide and conquer for the No. 14 Harvard coed sailing team this weekend, as the Crimson spread out all over the New England area to compete in four regattas. The team came out on top of many familiar opponents and earned three top-five finishes on the weekend.

“We were pretty happy with the way we were sailing,” junior skipper Brian Drumm said. “Especially given that . . . this is our first weekend of fleet racing regattas.”

On Saturday and Sunday, the team competed at the two-division Savin Hill Invitational which was hosted by Boston College and held on Dorchester Bay. Both Harvard squads turned in solid performances to earn an overall third-place finish in the field of seven teams.

Freshman skipper David Mende and crew Nomin-Erden Jagdagdorj guided the A boat to seven top-five finishes, and sophomore skipper Adam Brodehim teamed up with freshman Victor Kamenker to nab three top-three times. The Crimson would end with 160 total points.

A dominating performance from Boston College put the lead out of the Crimson’s reach as the Eagles cruised to first-place with just 54 points.

Meanwhile, other Harvard sailors were racing on the Thames River in a two-division regatta for the Owen, Mosbacher and Knapp Trophies.

“That’s a great benefit of being in the New England area,” Drumm said. “There are a lot of these regattas that are hosted every weekend, so a lot of our sailors are able to get a lot of sailing time.”

The A division squad for the Crimson consisted of sophomore skipper Andrew Mollerus with freshman Sydney Karnovsky and senior Luke O’Connor as crew. They would end the competition with 137 points and in 11th place among the 17 competitors in their division. The B squad fared well, as junior Michael Drumm and senior Isabel Ruane paired up as skipper and crew, respectively, to earn sixth place in their division with a solid 81 points.

Host team Yale would go on to carry the contest with an overall score of 80.

The Thames was also the site of the 27th Thompson Trophy. Beautiful race conditions allowed the intersectional regatta to go off without a hitch, and Harvard would sail to its second third-place finish of the weekend with a total of 243. A strong performance from Drumm along with Ashleigh Inglis at crew would lead the way for the Crimson, as the duo grabbed third-place overall in the A division.

“I’ve never sailed with [Inglis] in competition before,” Drumm said. “So we went out Saturday morning before the competition and really worked on how we work together in the boat, because a lot of sailing is really fast-paced action …. It worked out very well.”

The C division, staffed by sophomore skipper Marek Zaleski and freshman crew Emma Wheeler, came out of the gates strong, turning in a stellar day-one performance that would leave them just one point behind division-leader South Florida heading into Sunday. They were able to keep that pace through day-two as well, putting up an impressively low 46 points for the event.

Junior skipper Gram Slattery and freshman crew Olivia Krorlien rounded out Harvard’s lineup with a 14th-place finish in the B division. First place would go to the top-ranked Stanford team, as the Cardinal finished the day with a combined 173 points.

Rounding out the weekend action, MIT hosted a 13-school race for the 70th Greater Boston Oberg Trophy. This in-conference regatta brought out a plethora of regional teams familiar to the Crimson. A first-place finish in the 12th race propelled freshmen Juan Carlos Perdomo and Priscilla Russo, skipper and crew, to a fourth-place finish in the A division. The B division boat for Harvard, which was manned by senior skipper Caitlin Watson and sophomore crew Kristina Jakobson, managed to secure three first-place races to a seventh-place ranking in their division.

Freshman skipper Bennett Capozzi and junior crew Rebecca Frankel turned out similar results in the C division with one victory and six top-five finishes slotting them at fifth best in that class.

The Crimson would place fifth with 220 points, while the Engineers walked away with 183 points and the win.

Harvard will follow up this flurry of races with five more next weekend.

“We’re definitely focused on what our own boat is doing,” Drumm said. “We’re just need to make sure that we make as few mistakes as possible.”