Sailing Posts Strong Results at Four Regattas

The Harvard coed sailing team finished in second place at the Nevins Trophy Regatta, topping off a weekend that resulted in four top-10 overall team finishes for the Crimson sailors.

NEVINS TROPHY

The squad’s best performance this weekend was the Nevins Trophy Regatta at King’s Point, N.Y., where Harvard’s coed team, led by senior Brian Drumm, junior Marek Zeleski and junior captain Andrew Mollerus as skippers sailed the team to a second-place finish out of 20 college teams. After a gusty day on Saturday, the regatta was cut short on Sunday to one race due to a lack of wind.

Drumm and junior crew Jake Bradt were among the most consistent boats in the A-division, finishing within top-five in four of their races and taking a third-place finish overall.

“It was great to have [Bradt] back in the boat this weekend,” said Drumm, who has not sailed with Bradt since last spring. “Our main goal was to get back to where we were last season and develop consistency.”

The biggest surprise of the regatta came out of the Laser C-division, where Zeleski came in a close second to Georgetown’s boat.

Zeleski won two of the first five races on Saturday, and his performance has excited Harvard coach Mike O’Connor.

“Of all of our players, [Zeleski] put in the most time and effort this summer,” O’Connor said. “His execution is very good right now, and his performance was an important part of our finish at King’s Point.”

The Nevins Trophy Regatta is one that the Crimson has dominated in recent years, finishing within the top two at each of its last four showings at King’s Point.

CENTRAL SERIES 2

In a more local affair, Harvard participated this weekend in the Central Series 2, the second of a two-part series hosted by Boston College on the Charles River. Unlike the first part of the series, in which the Crimson won the overall team event, this weekend Harvard finished in eighth place.

In the A-division, the Crimson was led by freshman Nick Sertl with sophomore crew Nomin Jagdagdorj, whose boat finished second by placing within the top-10 in all of the 15 races.

“One of the biggest keys for me was having [Jagdagdorj] as my crew,” Sertl said. “We did not try to win any races, and I think that that mentality is the reason we did so well.”

Junior skipper Adam Brodheim and junior crew Cara Kennedy Cuomo sailed in the B-division, where they came in 12th overall, finishing within the top-10 in seven races.

HATCH BROWN TROPHY

One of the more unique regattas of the fall season was the Hatch Brown Trophy, an event hosted by MIT, in which sailors race NC Firefly boats, an early 20th-century sailboat rare in college sailing.

The Crimson sailed well throughout the regatta. The strongest showing came from senior skipper Gram Slattery and sophomore crew Julia Lord, whose seven top-five finishes propelled them to a fifth-place finish within the B-division.

The A-division boat, skippered by seniors Michael Drumm and Rebecca Frankel, with sophomore Bennett Capozzi serving as the crew, took 15th-place.

MRS. HURST BOWL

The fourth regatta in which Harvard raced was the Mrs. Hurst Bowl, a women’s event hosted by Dartmouth. The Crimson finished in 10th place. In the B-division, junior skipper Sophie Bermudez and senior Ashleigh Inglis placed sixth overall.

In the A-division, freshman skipper Taylor Ladd and junior crew Kristina Jakobson finished in 15th place overall.

“Going up against upperclassmen with a lot more experience than me was definitely the hardest part,” Ladd said.

According to O’Connor, Ladd is simply on a learning curve just like all freshmen sailors, and he is confident in her and the rest of his team’s ability to perform at a high level for the rest of the fall season and beyond.