Although recently it seems as though the Dartmouth Sailing Team could hold a regatta on certain patches of the Green, the co-ed sailors opted to return to the southern comfort of Charleston, S.C., for just their second taste of competition since the fall.
The Bob Bavier Team Race Invite, hosted by the College of Charleston, tested the Big Green against seven of the best programs in the country in the squad's first team race event of the season. This type of regatta forgoes the usual distinctions of the A, B and C divisions as in other races, and instead pits each total team against each other in a grand round-robin style tournament.
The delegation representing Dartmouth was comprised of Scott Linthicum '04, Todd Whitehead '06, Jimmy Attridge '07, Christina Duncan '06, Amo Loring '04 and everyone's favorite name in the sport, Killarney Loufek '07. In more than 50 races spanning two full days of competition, Dartmouth encountered very tricky wind conditions and close racing throughout.
The Big Green started off slow, dropping back-to-back losses to both Brown University and the home team College of Charleston, before picking up steam and recording double wins against the oft-overlooked University of South Florida.
The weekend clearly belonged to Georgetown, however, which dominated with a final record of 13-1 to win the event outright. Second place was claimed by St. Mary's University with a mark of 11-3, and dear old Dartmouth finished in a four-way tie for fifth place with a 4-10 record in the round robin.
"We're not thrilled with our performance over the weekend, but we're not disappointed either," said senior Amo Loring '04, "We're coming off a long winter and making great strides towards being highly competitive in the spring." A few more regattas over this coming weekend should get the team sufficiently warmed up for their intensive spring break training.
