As the season winds down for the Dartmouth sailing team, the sailors' have not. The Big Green secured two strong finishes this weekend at the Rhode Island state championships at Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I., and at the Professor Noringer Trophy, held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.
At the Rhode Island state championships, which are also known as the Narragansett Bay Open, the Big Green sailors were able to overcome difficult weather and to place second in the regatta.
"It was a very tough event, conditions-wise," Bernie Roesler '12 said. "The current in Newport is tricky to figure out, so sometimes the water will be flowing in different directions on different parts of the course for a while, making it hard for those who aren't used to current to navigate through it."
Roesler and Rocky Merchant '12 finished in sixth place in the A division, while Ed Jude Glackin 11 and Matt Habig 13 took first in the B division. Their combined efforts gave the Big Green 137 points.
"Our team has made some great strides this fall and has definitely become a stronger competitor in NEISA," Merchant said.
Host Salve Regina took first place in the event, while Tufts University finished behind Dartmouth in third place.
"Salve had a definite home-field advantage in figuring out the current, but that doesn't take away from their performance," Roesler said.
The team has faced many different conditions over the course of the season, which has helped its members to learn to adapt to the changing environment, Roesler said.
"I think the team sailed well as a whole and definitely took away a lot of useful lessons going into our last week of the season," he said. "There's always room for improvement, but we're satisfied with how we did, especially considering the conditions."
At MIT, the Big Green came in 10th place out of 17 teams at the Professor Noringer Trophy. Nine of the competitors in Cambridge were ranked in the top 20 in the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Assocation.
Ryan McClafferty '12 and Thomas Woodford '12 finished eighth in A division, while LJ Sconzo '12 and Lukas Ruiz '12 secured an 11th-place finish in the B division.
Northeastern University captured the victory in the regatta, with Wellesley College and Bowdoin College taking second and third, respectively.
The Dartmouth coed sailing team currently ranks ninth in NEISA and 17th nationally. Next weekend, the team will face its biggest competition of the year at the Atlantic Coast Championships, which will wrap up the team's season.
"It's great to go into our last week with some good results from the R.I. state champs. and from our entire season," Merchant said. "We just have to stay focused and keep pushing towards strong finishes."
The Big Green is preparing as rigorously as the team would for any other weekend, Merchant said.
"To think that this regatta is one with added pressure is kind of like a death wish," she said. "The trick to doing well in any event, big or small, is just to stick to your normal routine and practice hard no matter what. That way, any race day just seems like another day of sailing."
