Harvard Coeds, Women ACC-Bound After Placing Fourth

Himler's boat won three straight races and finished with three straight top-four finishes (photo courtesy DSPics.com).

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-The Harvard coed and women's sailing teams both posted fourth-place finishes over the weekend, qualifying for the Atlantic Coast Championships in two weeks. The Crimson also placed ninth at the Nickerson Trophy, New England's freshman championship.

The Crimson coeds took fourth of 20 teams at the 68th Erwin Schell Trophy, hosted by MIT. The top seven teams qualified for ACCs, which Harvard will host Nov. 14-15 on the Charles River. Junior Tedd Himler skippered Harvard's top-finishing boat, which placed fourth in the B division. With help from crews Michelle Konstadt and Annie DeAngelo and with Brendan Kopp skippering two races, Harvard won three times in the division. The Crimson placed in the top five in 10 of 20 B races.

In the A division, Alan Palmer, Grace Charles and Winston Yan once and placed outside the top seven just eight times en route to a fifth-place division finish. The Crimson totaled 292 points to finish 29 points ahead of fifth-place Vermont and 16 back of Roger Williams and Boston College. Yale won the regatta, while Brown and Tufts claimed the final two qualifying spots.

On the women's side, the B-division duo of Emily Lambert and Alexandra Jumper was outstanding on its home course in the Victorian Coffee Urn regatta. They placed third in the division despite having boat problems that cost them major points in two races. In their six races that counted, the pair had a win and two runner-up finishes and never placed outside the top six of the 16-school field.

Liz Powers and Marie Appel finished seventh in the A division. Harvard's 99 overall points were eight better than Brown in fifth and 13 more than third-place Yale. Winner Boston College, Connecticut College, Brown , Tufts, Rhode Island, Dartmouth and College of Charleston also earned bids to the women's ACC regatta at Brown.