It's pretty cool, and by cool I mean totally sweet, to qualify for a national championship regatta. It's even cooler to do it in your own backyard. After the success of the Women's New England Championship two weekends ago at Boston University, in which the lady sailors earned a bid to their big event, the team sailors were in action Saturday and Sunday at their very own, recently-unfrozen Lake Mascoma.
The 55th Annual Fowle Trophy Regatta spanned two days of intense racing by the best teams in the northeast striving to make it to the next round. The stakes couldn't have been higher with only the top three finishers of 12 squads in the regatta moving on.
Putting together a veritable dream team of sailing's best, Dartmouth amassed sailors Scott Hogan '04, Amo Loring '04, Peter Fleming '05, Liz Hyon '05, Clementine James '05, Andrew Loe '06, Elisabeth Kreter '05, Jimmy Attridge '07, Scott Linthicum '04, Killarney Loufek '07, Todd Whitehead '06 and Erik Storck '07.
First, Dartmouth had to place in the top four of its preliminary group of six, which the team accomplished easily. The sailors continued to dominate in the round of eight, to the point of guaranteeing a berth in the championship with five races still to go. When it was all over, the visiting Harvard Crimson had won the regatta, but more importantly, Dartmouth had qualified for the National Team Sailing Championship in style.
While the Fowle Trophy was certainly the biggest regatta of the weekend, it was by no means the only action this past weekend. Rather, the very first George Morris Trophy Intersectional at Boston University featured a "mischievous breeze [that] made for a day of ups and downs for most of this very well-matched competition," according to the official post-regatta report.
In A-division, the duo of Mike Wilde '07 and Lucy Whidden '07 raced to eighth out of 11 teams. After the event, Wilde commented, "Wow -- that racing was wild. Just like me."
B-division counterparts Garrett Holmes '05 and Debbie Sperling '06 finished a strong fifth, which propelled Dartmouth to fifth-place overall.
Maybe the closest finish of the weekend came at the 36th Geiger Trophy, hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In a colossal four-division showdown, Brah Hammond '04 and Rachel Holmes '04 showed veteran poise by taking second in A-division. B-division in this regatta was a solo affair, which Giancarlo Nucci '07 handled flawlessly by winning the division outright.
Pete Cunningham '04 and Kate Hacker '07 finished fifth in C-division, while Emily East '06 and Allison Swindell '04 rounded out the action with a silver in D-division. The aggregate point totals left Dartmouth in third overall, but this was merely three points out of second and just four points out of a first place finish.
Just like that adorable horse Smarty Jones, Dartmouth goes for the triple crown of national championship bids with the New England Co-ed Dinghy Championships this coming weekend, where only the top four teams will make it to the Dinghy Championship. All three ICSA National Championships will take place on the Colombia River in Cascade Lakes, Ore., hosted by the University of Oregon from May 26 to June 4.
