Often forgotten amongst the more highly attended collegiate sports, sailing is one of Dartmouth College's forts. This past weekend four members of the team received high recognition at the New England Sailing Championship.
Captain Leslie Sandberg '01 was named top women's sailing crew in the New England Region for the year. Esther Freeman '02 received All-New England honors in the crew division, while Erin Maxwell '01 and Jen Morgan '02 were named All-New England skippers.
Maxwell was ranked 4th among skippers, trailing Jen Provan of Tufts, Kaya Haig of BU and Lee Icyda of Tufts. Maxwell is also a three-time All-American. Morgan was ranked 8th, making Dartmouth one of three schools, along with Tufts and BU, to have two skippers in the top 10.
Freeman was ranked seventh among All-New England crews as Dartmouth again joined Tufts and BU along with BC as teams with two members in the top 10 in the region.
The women's team is currently ranked sixth by the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association of North America, having been previously ranked fourth. The Big Green trails BU, Tufts, which had been No. 1, St. Mary's, Brown and Connecticut College.
Dartmouth's Coed team is also one of the nations best, being led by All-American Patrick Hogan '01 and Carly Prior '01. The Coeds are also ranked sixth and also were fourth two weeks ago. They trail the group of Georgetown, Harvard, St. Mary's, Tufts and Old Dominion and will look to upset them all when the teams meet at Nationals in early June.
The Big Green competed all over New England this past weekend, beginning with the Jerry Reed Trophy at Tufts. Dartmouth finished second overall, behind the hosts.
In the A Division, the tandem of Maxwell and Sandberg finished fourth while Morgan and Freeman took second in the B Division behind Icyda and the platoon of AJ Crane and Clare Dooley.
In the Thompson Trophy Regatta at Connecticut College, Dartmouth edged out C and Harvard to place second, 20 points behind champion Old Dominion. Hogan and Prior along with Scott Hogan '04, and Katie Lyndon '01 grabbed first place in the A Division, seven points ahead of the Eagles.
The pairing of Kevin Horrigan '02 and Cindy Keppel '02 did not have as much success in the B Division, finishing ninth after the 18 individual races.
At Brown University in Providence, the Big Green were also competing in the Southern Series Three. Dartmouth battled Conn. College all day, and in the end fell to their rivals by one point.
Scott Linthicum '04 and Meaghan Gragg '02 took first place in the A Division races with 19 points to Connecticut's 26. Robin Deliso '04 and Amory Loring '04 were also very successful in the eight races in the B Division, but their seventh place finish in the fifth race ended up being the clincher for Connecticut when the Dartmouth finished second to Conn. College in each of the last three races.
With the three second place finishes, Dartmouth is peaking at the right time. With the big races leading up to Nationals set to be run in warm waters, the Big Green are very optimistic about the possibility of a national title..
