ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Harvard Sailing's Sophia Montgomery captured the 2024 ICSA Women's Singlehanded National Championship on Sunday, winning the event with a score of 49, at St. Petersburg Yacht Club. The title was Montgomery's second after she won the 2022 crown in Virginia.
 
Montgomery finished atop the 18-sailor table and ahead of runner-up Gilda Dondona of Cornell (57). Rounding out the top five were Rhode Island's Okyanus Arikan (82), Montgomery's teammate Kate Danielson (82), and Sarah Young of Dartmouth (86).
 
A native of Bangkok, Thailand, Montgomery found herself in the lead after 12 races when the wind died down. From there, it was a race against the clock, either the wind pick up by 3 p.m. ET or the event would be called. The wind did not cooperate by the deadline and the junior was crowned for a second time in her Crimson career.
 
Montgomery did not finish lower than seventh place in any of the 12 competitions and was victorious in Race 1 and 6. Altogether, Montgomery finished among the top three six times and was in the top five on eight different occasions.
 
Danielson, meanwhile, was a top-10 finisher in 10 of 12 races. The first-year won Race 3 and was the runner-up in Race 1 and 7. Danielson tied with Arikan for third place, but was awarded fourth as a result of a head-to-head tiebreaker.
 
In the open regatta, Robby Meek finished in eighth place with a score of 102. The NEISA champion opened with four straight single-digit performances (3-8-8-7) before a 12^th-place showing in Race 5 slowed his progress. The sophomore, however, answered by finishing 3-9-6-6-8-8 over the next six races. Consecutive 12^th-place efforts to close the regatta slotted him into the eighth position in the 18-athlete field. Daniel Escudero of Webb Institute emerged with the victory after earning a score of 57.
 
The singlehanded event put a lid on Montgomery, Danielson and Meek's Fall 2024 campaign. Next up for Harvard is the ICSA Match Racing National Championship in Oyster Bay, New York. Junior Justin Callahan received one of six automatic berths to the regatta and will be one of 10 sailors competing for the national title.