Chandler Salisbury '13 and Madilyn Gamble '13 cruised to a ninth place finish in the A-Division. Kelsey Wheeler '14 and Molly Wilson '13 finished fifth in the B-division.
In an e-mail to The Dartmouth Wilson said that the team faced more pressure than usual because the Victorian Coffee Urn is such a high -takes regatta. This weekend's race was very competitive and the team's performance was up and down, she added.
"In the end we pulled through to finish in the last qualifying spot for ACCs," she wrote in the email. "One of the biggest challenges of the weekend was trying not to focus too much on the results and have fun like we do at the other regattas."
Wilson added that she thinks the Big Green will be a very competitive team at the ACCs.
"At the beginning of this season, I don't think many people expected our women's team to be as strong as it is now," she said.
The Dartmouth coed sailing team, which finished ninth at the 70th Erwin Schell Trophy regatta, is now out of the running for a national title. The coed team will now compete in the Atlantic Coast Tournament, which is similar to a consolation tournament for teams which do not make the championships, according to Habig.
"It's slightly disheartening to have been working so hard and not have the chance to compete for the championships," Habig said.
Hughes said the coed team is disappointed they did not make it to the top eight, but still pleased with their performance.
"It's still the closest we've come in four years to qualifying," Hughes said. "We sailed very well, and it was really competitive a very tight regatta."
Sam Williams '12, Matt Habig '13 and Peter Hughes '11 finished fifth in the A-division at the Coast Guard's regatta. Ed Jude Glackin '11, Carissa Crawford '14 and John Renehan '13 came in 12th in the B-division.
Boston College dominated the field with first and second place finishes in the A and B divisions, respectively.
Coast Guard is a difficult place to sail because of conditions on the course, according to Hughes.
"There is a lot of current and the wind is very shifty," Hughes said. "It's very tricky racing in terms of skill and strategy. It was a different style of racing, but, in the words of my good friend Peter Ankeny '12, you've always got to go with the conditions."
At the Erwin Schell Trophy regatta, high winds proved challenging to navagate, but the team was not phased by the conditions, according to Williams.
"When the storm was raging high it got up to about 18-20 knots we just focused in and tried to focus on positioning ourselves advantageously to take the lead depending on the way the wind shifted," Williams said. "And when the race was run, and our chances for the ACCs done for, we thought that we fairly won ninth place. It's nothing to be ashamed of."
The team felt that they had fairly won ninth place and had nothing to be ashamed of, he added.
Hughes said that when the wind shifts frequently during the race, the racers must focus much more on strategy than speed.
"It has to do less with straightaway speed and more with capitalizing on the wind shifts," Hughes said. "A lot of the time it's hard to see them coming. A lot of the times they'll just hit the racecourse and affect it immediately. It becomes very tactical and difficult in terms of strategy."
The women's Atlantic Coast Championships will be held Nov. 13 at the University of South Florida. The Atlantic Coast Tournament for the coed team will be held at Bowdoin College Nov. 13.
"The team is very excited for the women, and we're obviously hoping for the best," Hughes said. "We're all going to work as hard as possible in practice over the next two weeks to prepare for our respective tournaments. We'll be giving our all no matter what."
Staff reporter Austin Major contributed to the reporting of this article.
