After a spectacular showing two weeks ago, winning five of seven regattas, the Dartmouth sailing team slipped slightly this weekend. The Big Green posted top-three finishes in only four of eight regattas and winning only one, despite outstanding performances by individual boats and a pair of close finishes.
The Big Green competed once again in traditional venues like Brown University and Boston College but also traveled to more exotic locations such as the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and Old Dominion University.
The best regatta of the weekend for the Big Green was the Stu Nelson Trophy Intersectional at Connecticut College. Over Saturday and Sunday sailors experienced highly variable racing conditions, making for interesting racing all around.
Sailors Thalia Pascalides '03 and Clementine James '05 won the A-division after 14 races against 17 other teams. These sailors "have now recorded three A-division wins out of four women's intersectional regattas this fall," Coach Brian Doyle said.
A fair B-division performance by Lauren Padilla '05 and Elizabeth Kreter '05 earned Dartmouth a second-place finish overall behind Old Dominion by just six points.
The Hoyt Trophy at Brown University was a tale of two days. On Saturday, enduring cold conditions and driving rain at times, sailors Peter Fleming '05 and Liz Hyon '05 struggled, coming in 12th in the A-division.
On Sunday, the team of Andrew Loe '06 and Amory Loring '04 raced well on a spectacular day with shifting winds to earn a third-place finish in the B-division.
Unfortunately, the combination of the scores left Dartmouth in seventh overall, with Brown winning on its home course and Boston College in second place.
In freshmen action this weekend, the Tufts University Freshmen Series played out in much the same way the Hoyt Trophy did, with the Big Green placing fifth in A-division and second in B division to garner a respectable third-place overall finish out of 12 teams. Once again, the home team won the regatta, while Brown finished second.
The sailors turned in their best showing of the weekend at the Western Series at Amherst College, where the Big Green beat out seven other teams to take first place.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, The New England Men's Singlehanded Championship at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy found another rainy Saturday and clear, warm Sunday as Dartmouth raced to seventh behind John Diskant '03.
The Wellahan Trophy Regatta at the University of Southern Maine, hosted by Bates College, pitted the Big Green against 11 other teams from the Northeast. With temperatures around 50 degress Fahrenheit and tricky racing conditions throughout the regatta, the team of Jon Kling '04 and DeAnna Fernandez '04 raced to a sixth-place finish in the A-division after six races.
"We didn't sail as well as we would have liked," Fernandez said, "but it only gives us more incentive to work harder for next weekend."
In the B-division, Graham Roth '04 and Allison Swindell '04 finished in fourth, raising the final Dartmouth position to fourth overall for the regatta, only two points out of a top-three finish.
Dartmouth had another fourth-place showing in the Metro Series at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy with Connecticut College winning the regatta followed by Tufts in second and the Mass. Maritime Academy in third.
The final two regattas of the weekend proved to be a mixture of joy and sorrow. At the Oberg Trophy at Boston College on Saturday, the A-division team of Scott Linthicum '04 and Christina Lyndon '04 in combination with the B-division sailors Greg Hammond '04 and Sarah Fink '05 raced a total of 14 races to place third overall out of 18 teams total.
In an outstanding individual boat performance, Linthicum and Lyndon nearly won the A-division, falling to a tough Boston College team by a mere four points. In the final standings, Boston College was first and Tufts University second.
Despite expressing frustration and disappointment with their performance, Dartmouth sailors turned in respectable showings last weekend. They head into Homecoming weekend looking to return to the championship form they exhibited two weeks ago.
