At St. Mary's College of Maryland's fall interconference regatta, the Big Green finished fifth out of 18 teams. Matt Wefer '14 and Avery Plough '14 sailed A-division to a fourth-place finish, while Chris Price '14 and Charlotte Snow '15, the B-division, struggled a bit more in shifty conditions, finishing in the bottom half of their group. Yale University dominated the event, scoring less than half the points of runner-up Georgetown University. The Bulldogs won both the A and B-divisions, beating Dartmouth by 60 points even with the Big Green's strong A-division sailors.
"We struggled a little bit to get off the starting line," Wefer said. "That's something that we've focused on a lot at the beginning of the season, and we've trained to get a lot of practice in that. Looking ahead, we've identified a couple of different areas to focus on and practice in the coming weeks."
The Big Green also competed in the Hood Trophy at Tufts University, placing ninth out of 18 teams. Deirdre Lambert '15 and Carissa Crawford '14 sailed A-division on Tuft's Mystic Lake course, while Sarah Peck '14 and Colin Murphy '15 accompanied them in B-division.
At Tufts, competitors sail larks two-person, non-trapeze sailing dinghies which require adjustment from the Big Green yachtsmen.
"Larks sail well in the conditions you'll find in places like this," Crawford said. "Mystic Lake is a tiny little pond with wind shifts up to 60 degrees, which is huge for college sailing. They kind of just accept that and in a race that you would abandon at any other venue, they continue to sail."
Although there were bright spots for the Big Green, including four top-three race finishes, Dartmouth struggled to push toward the top of the leaderboard throughout the regatta. Opening finishes of 10th by both the A and B-divisions put the sailors in a hole from which they never quite recovered. The A-division squad placed ninth, with the B-division even farther down than that in their own division.
"I think it was a tough regatta for all of us, but we definitely left motivated," Crawford said. "It's only the third weekend, so we're getting back into the swing of it all."
The final regatta for the Big Green this weekend was the Chris Loder Trophy, held on Mendums Pond at the University of New Hampshire. Victor Hollenberg '14 and Hunter Johnstone '16 represented in the B-division, and Evan Read '16 and John Lewis '17 sailed A-division, with Lewis competing in his first college regatta.
Only three official races were sailed in both A and B-division due to changing conditions. In this shortened race, the Big Green placed sixth out of 13 teams. The B-division did particularly well, tying for first in their division with eight points, while the A-division tallied 26 points in their three official races, coming in seventh, eighth and 11th place in the tricky conditions.
"We were only really able to get three races in our division," Hollenberg said. "That was entirely due to the occasionally light and variable wind conditions down at Mendums Pond."
Though falling slightly short of the expectations brought on by last year's fantastic season, the Big Green looks forward the season.
"We didn't really have a particular result in mind," Wefer said. "We're focusing mostly on the process of just getting better and trying not to focus on the results, because that distracts you from what you're actually trying to accomplish."
Dartmouth takes to the water with five regattas this weekend.
Reporter Jasper Bingham contributed reporting.
