BRIEF: Sailing Take Pair of Top-Five Finishes

The 20th ranked coed and 15th ranked women’s Harvard sailing teams competed in three regattas this weekend, headlined by two fifth place finishes in the Victorian Coffee Urn and Erwin Schell Trophy.

VICTORIAN COFFEE URN

The Crimson sailed against 14 other fleets in FJ boats on the Thames River in New London, Conn., outplacing Ivy rivals Dartmouth and Brown to finish tied for fourth with the U.S. Coast Guard Academy with a final total of 164 points. Yale won the regatta with 124 points.

Harvard performed well in both the A and B divisions, scoring 78 and 86 points, respectively. Juniors, skipper Taylor Ladd and crew Kirstin Anderson, led the Crimson to a fourth-place result in the A division, consistently placing in the middle of the pack throughout the two-day regatta.

Harvard placed 7th in the B division. Their two days were marked by inconsistency—out of 12 races, senior crew Emma Wheeler, sophomore skipper Taylor Gavula, and freshman crew Jessica Williams posted five top three finishes, but were plagued by five results in the bottom four.

Saturday’s conditions were ideal with an eight to twelve knot southwest breeze and sunny skies. Sunday proved to be more difficult, as the breeze frequently failed to fill, causing a couple races to be completed northwesterly, while the rest were completed in southerly breezes ranging from six to eight knots.

ERWIN SCHELL TROPHY

This regatta was also hosted by the Coast Guard on the Thames, as Harvard cruised to fifth-place finish out of 18 teams in the Schell.

Sophomore skipper Nicholas Karnovsky and senior crew Julia Lord performed especially well on Saturday in the B division, winning two of the six races that day. However, 16th and 18th place finishes to end the day in the final two races on Sunday were costly, ending with a final total of 86 points.

Harvard’s A division boat, sailed by junior co-captain and skipper Nick Sertl and sophomore crew Christine Gosioco finished tied for fourth with Boston University with a total of 73 points.

Overall, the Crimson finished 53 points behind first-place Yale with a total of 159 points.

NICKERSON TROPHY

The Tufts hosted regatta began on Saturday with near perfect conditions on Mystic Lake. Eight to twelve knot winds blowing from the south-southwest with minimal shifts contributed to a great day of racing. Sunday began with five knot winds that gradually built over the course of the day.

Both boats in the A and B divisions struggled this weekend, posting an overall eighth-place finish out of 17 teams. Freshman skipper Sofia Marie Mascia and freshman crew Victoria Marquez’s 57 points in the A division led the Crimson to a tie for sixth-place with the University of Rhode Island. They finished the weekend strong with back-to-back third place finishes in the final two races on Sunday. In the B division, freshmen Catherine Kerner and Juan Crestanello finished with 82 points, good for 11th place.