The sailing team had one of its most successful weekends of the season, notching five top-five finishes after sending six teams to five regattas. The Big Green achieved two third-place finishes, two fourth-place finishes as well as a fifth- and seventh-place finish.
One extremely impressive result came at the King’s Point Dinghy Open, hosted by the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. Dartmouth came in third out of 20 teams, placing just three points behind Fordham University and seven behind the winning team, SUNY-Maritime College.
Ian Storck ’15 and Madeleine Cooney ’17 sailed A-division for the Big Green while Caroline Gray ’16 and Hunter Johnstone ’16 sailed B-division. Johnstone and Gray delivered a particularly exceptional performance, winning the B-division by seven points. Over the last eight races of the day, Johnstone and Gray never finished any lower than fourth.
“We were met with extremely windy conditions on Saturday and got off a few races before having to come in for a few hours in the afternoon because of heavy wind,” Gray said. “We went out again for three races each division later in the afternoon and were met with frustrating ‘survival-mode’ conditions. We learned a lot about sailing in big waves and kept pushing ourselves despite some major setbacks.”
Storck and Cooney also delivered a solid performance. They placed fifth in the more competitive A-division, though their finish may have come as a bit of a disappointment. Going into the final three races of the day, Storck and Cooney stood in second place, before a mild collapse dropped them to fifth out of 20 teams in their division.
Dartmouth had a solid result at Brown University’s Sherman Hoyt Trophy, placing fourth out of 18 competing schools. Two Ivy League rivals, Yale University and Brown, topped the Big Green, as did the eventual runners-up from Stanford University.
Matt Wefer ’14 sailed with Avery Plough ’14 in the A-division, though Plough split time with Nathaniel Greason ’17 and Charles Lalumiere ’17. Scott Houck ’15 and Julia McKown ’17 sailed B-division for the Big Green, with McKown splitting time with Greason.
“In terms of actual conditions, it was quite breezy on Saturday with the wind going from 10 to 20 to 22 knots while gusty,” Wefer said. “That’s a condition that we normally don’t see very often. We had to use alternate crews for part of the day, so we put in Nate and Charlie since we needed more strength and more weight in the boat.”
The A-division team claimed second in their division, trailing only the Bulldogs. The Big Green nearly knocked off the Bulldogs, but could not maintain its momentum.
“Those first two Sunday races that we won, we sailed really well,” Wefer said. “We knew that the points were close, but we were just trying to take it race by race. We had a foul in our second to last race, then got impatient in the last race, which cost us points.”
The B-division squad struggled a bit more, placing sixth, just one point above the seventh-place Tufts University Jumbos. Yale controlled the B-division as well, beating its nearest competitor by 13 points.
Dartmouth performed well at the Stu Nelson, hosted by Connecticut College this weekend. The Big Green placed third out of 18 entrants, finishing only behind Yale and Brown.
The A-division team of Lizzie Guynn ’16 and Kelsey Wheeler ’14 struggled in what ended up being a very competitive division. Guynn and Wheeler finished 10th in their division, though they were only 12 points out of fourth place. The B-division team of Sarah Williams ’16 and Sarah Peck ’14 put on an even more impressive performance, nearly winning their division before placing third. Williams and Peck finished one point behind the runner-up Bulldogs and two points behind the ultimately victorious Bears. The team led the B-division with just two races to go, but only could manage a 14th and a fifth-place finish in the final two races.
Dartmouth competed in a three-division race over the weekend, the 75th annual Oberg Trophy, hosted by Northeastern University. Behind the strength of incredibly consistent efforts from all three divisions, the Big Green finished up the regatta in fourth place out of 18 teams.
Deirdre Lambert ’15 and Carissa Crawford ’14 sailed A-division for Dartmouth, finishing fifth in a tight division. Christopher Price ’14 and Charlotte Snow ’15 sailed B-division for the Big Green to sixth place. Finally, Colin Murphy ’15 and Hope Wilson ’16 sailed C-division for Dartmouth, placing fourth in another extremely tight division. Each of the three squads scored either 127 or 128 points in their 18 races.
The final regatta that the team competed in this weekend, the Central Series 6, was hosted by Boston College. Dartmouth sent two teams to this regatta with Dartmouth College 2 placing fifth and Dartmouth College 1 finishing in seventh.
Lalumiere and Mia Steck ’17 sailed A-division for DC2, finishing in seventh place. Pat Floyd ’17 and Sophie Kerr ’17 sailed B division for DC2 and notched a solid fifth place in the division. For DC1, Thomas Gallagher ’16 and John Lewis ’17 took third place in the A division, only behind two teams from Tufts. The B-division team from DC1, Emily Petno ’16 and Patrick Collins ’17, finished 11th.
“It was pretty breezy everywhere this week,” Petno said. “That just meant it was important to focus on sailing the boat fast while still making sure that we don’t neglect playing the shifts or working on fleet management.”
All in all, the weekend brought standout performances from many Dartmouth sailors. The team competes again next weekend at four different regattas across the Northeast.
