The Big Green competed in the Southern New England team race at Connecticut College, the Dellenbaugh women's regatta at Brown University, the Mystic Lake team race at Tufts University and the BU Trophy at Boston University. The races provided more experience for the sailing team as the season continues, allowing some members to sail in formats they did not get the chance to try in last week's regattas.
The Southern New England team race was an inter-sectional regatta with team scoring, and Dartmouth finished eighth out of 12 teams competing. Since only the top six teams qualified for the elimination round, Dartmouth competed in the round robin section.
"We sailed much better than our place and record showed," sailor Matt Wefer '14 said. "We lost a lot of close races. Especially since we haven't had much time on the water yet since our lake is still frozen, we're not worrying about results yet."
Dartmouth finished 4-7 after 11 races in the round robin section. Although they did not place in the top six on Sunday, the team did manage to pull off an upset victory in the round robin by beating first-ranked Yale University, the eventual regatta champions.
The Dellenbaugh women's regatta at Brown did not go as well for the Big Green, however, and the women's team, ranked sixth nationally, finished 12 out of 18 teams. Dartmouth's A-squad had a tough time, finishing in the bottom five in seven of their 10 fleet races. This put the Big Green in a hole that would prove impossible to climb out of. The team finished 11 points behind the host, the 15th-ranked Bears women, their closest Ivy League competitors at the regatta.
"I think that the whole weekend was definitely trying with the conditions, and we definitely struggled with starts," Caroline Gray '16 said. "We also did better Sunday than Saturday. There were less fluctuations in the wind, we had a stronger wind in general and that helped us improve over the three days."
The Mystic Lake team race invitational was a highlight of the weekend, as Dartmouth secured a fourth place finish out of eight. After a difficult first round of round robin competition, the Big Green turned their luck around and went on a solid winning streak. They began the regatta with a mediocre 3-4 record that would have jeopardized their chances of finishing in the top half of the field, but were able to open up with back-to-back 5-2 rounds. The Big Green went on to beat every team in the tournament at least once, and only missed a third place finish by two victories.
The Big Green's final regatta of the weekend, the BU trophy race, was the season's most successful to date. Dartmouth finished second out of 13 teams in the fleet race, and Dartmouth's A- and B-squads contributed terrific efforts to the result. The A-team struggled with last place finishes in the fourth and ninth races, but more than made up for it with six top-five finishes.
"Since we were sailing on the Charles, everyone has some bad races," Emily Petno '16 said. "Once you get out there it's all about minimizing mistakes, and we did a very good job of that."
As conditions shifted, the course skewed, occasionally putting one team at a competitive disadvantage. The Charles River is known for unpredictable conditions, but this regatta seemed to especially highlight the challenge of the course.
"This was my first time ever sailing on the Charles," Petno said. "I expected it to be shifty, but it was even more variable than I expected it to be. The wind came from different directions every race, which made things difficult."
The Dartmouth sailing team heads back to the water next weekend with four regattas: the Marchiando-Friis team race, the greater New York City Dinghy, the Central Series three race and the women's President's trophy race.
"We're looking to improve every week," Wefer said. "We have to make as much as we can out of our time on the water, because we don't have unlimited time before our big spring regattas. We have to make our work count."
