The coed sailing team put together an impressive fifth place showing at the Navy Fall Intersectional this past weekend. The team, which spreads out to as many as eight regattas each weekend, didn't do badly elsewhere, either. A women's squad placed seventh at Yale and a second coed crew notched a 10th place finish at home at the Jack Wood Intersectional.
The Navy Fall Intersectional is unique because it adds two additional divisions to the standard format. The results of double-handed 'A' and 'B' divisions are combined with finishes from single-handed 'C' and 'D' divisions in a unique test of each team's depth and single handed skills.
In 'A' division Erik Storck '07 teamed with Andrew Geffken '08 and Killarney Loufek '07 to finish fourth of 20 teams.
The weekend's best performance came in 'B' division where Andrew Loe '07 and Besty Bryant '08 continued their season-long domination, besting 19 teams to win their division by a massive 25 point margin.
Despite minimal experience in single-handed boats, Ben Sampson '08 used superior nautical skills to outwit more experienced laser sailors and finish fifth in 'C' division.
The tricky and often windy conditions didn't bode quite as well for the Big Green in 'D' division, where Kendall Reiley '09 took a respectable 12th place finish to round out the scoring.
Dartmouth's lady sailors headed to northern Long Island Sound to compete against the nation's top women's teams at Yale. The Big Green women were met by unusually difficult conditions, as winds reached 15 knots and waves topped five feet, making surviving the races a goal for a number of sailors.
In 'A' division Adele Wilhelm '08 and Kate Hacker '07 improved dramatically throughout the regatta to finish seventh in a highly competitive fleet.
In 'B' division Becca Dellenbaugh '10 and Steph Gagnon '10 cruised past older and more experienced sailors to take fourth place. The Big Green ladies' seventh place finish left it in front of 14 other squads.
"We finished with some great results and only missed finishing fifth by five points," women's team captain Kate Hacker said. "We're excited to build on that momentum next weekend at Connecticut College."
On home waters, Dartmouth fielded a team of Jimmy Attridge '07, Matty Cohen '10, Luke Hathaway '08 and Vanessa Sievers '10 for the Jack Wood Intersectional. Bad luck and a few mediocre finishes hampered the group. Attridge and Cohen endured a number of the tough breaks, but battled to ninth place in 'A' division.
Hathaway and Sievers ended up taking 12th in 'B' division. The team's tenth place finish came in a field of 17 teams. While the performance wasn't what the team might have hoped for, team members were heartened by their teammates' success at Navy.
Inter-sectional regattas are particularly competitive, allowing schools from around the nation to cross district lines to compete against one another. Most events feature teams located in a particular region.
While most sports fit neatly into women's, men's or coed, sailing is divided into women's and coed. Most regattas the Big Green attends are coed, but women's events are common as well. This coed/women's division limits the men of college sailing to coed events, but allows women to compete in both coed and women's regattas.
Next weekend the Big Green will attempt to build off this weekend's success and qualify for this fall's Atlantic Coast Championships. Dartmouth's women's team will head to Connecticut College while the coed team will compete at Brown University.
Reporter James Attridge is a member of the sailing team.
