CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard Sailing continued its season-long trend of solid performances on the water, recording a pair of top-3 finishes this past weekend in the New England area. The top-ranked coed team turned in a runner-up effort at the Thompson Trophy Team Race, while the No. 8 women's squad logged a third-place finish at the NEISA Women's Team Race Championship/Legler Trophy. The Crimson also placed seventh at the Owen Trophy in nearby Medford.
Thompson Trophy Team Race | New London, Conn.
Competing on the Thames River, Harvard finished in second place with a 17-4 record over two days of sailing. The Crimson finished behind No. 3 Stanford (20-1), with No. 4 Brown (15-6), No. 12 Boston College (11-10) and No. 16 MIT (8-13) rounding out the top five. Competing for Harvard were skippers
Justin Callahan,
Mitchell Callahan and
Lachlain McGranahan, with the crew consisting of
Aidan Pesce,
Alexandra Dorofeev and
Marbella Marlo. The Crimson was nearly flawless in Round-1 action, posting a 6-1 record with 1-2-3 finishes against BC, Connecticut College and Stanford. Round 2 saw Harvard avenge its first-round defeat to Brown with a 2-3-5 performance, but suffered setbacks to BC and Stanford en route to a 5-2 mark. In final round action, Harvard rallied for a 6-1 record, racking up victories against everyone except for Stanford.
NEISA Women's Team Race Championship/Legler Trophy | Cambridge, Mass.
Harvard, which served as the host for the event, came in third place with a 10-7 mark and trailed only No. 1 Yale (14-3) and No. 3 Boston College (11-6) in the final team standings. No. 7 Dartmouth (10-7) and No. 11 MIT (6-8) completed the top five. The Crimson was represented on the Charles River by skippers
Cordelia Burn,
Sarah Burn and
Zoey Ziskind, with
Emily Launderville,
Sarra Guezguez,
Peyton Hadfield,
Lily Bartlett and
Margo Silliman serving as crew. Harvard opened the regatta on a tough note, dropping decisions to BC, No. 15 Bowdoin and Brown, but rebounded nicely with strong victories over the No. 13 U.S. Coast Guard (1-2-5), Dartmouth (1-4-5), MIT (1-3-5), Roger Williams (1-2-4) and No. 14 Tufts (1-2-5), before falling to Yale. The Crimson's 5-4 first-round record place it in the top six, where it went 3-2, defeating MIT (1-2-6), Dartmouth (1-2-4) and No. 4 Brown (1-3-4). Then in the final four, Harvard made it 3-for-3 with .500-or-better records, going 2-1 after wins over Boston College (1-2-4) and Dartmouth (1-2-5). The lone loss was to Yale.
Owen Trophy | Medford, Mass.
Harvard made the short ride over to Mystic Lake in Medford and finished in seventh place after it finished with a two-round score of 186. After one round of action, the Crimson found itself in seventh place with a score of 90. Then when the water settled after Round-B action, Harvard held firm in it position after a 96, providing its final score. There was movement at the top of the standings as Brown posted the lowest score in any round, recording a 27 in second-round action, propelling it to victory (69 points). Tufts (73), BC (96), Northeastern (104), Vermont (152) and Roger Williams (155) made up the top six, with U.S. Merchant Marine Academy filling out the team standings in eighth (215).
Up Next
Harvard is slated to compete in three regattas this week (April 20-21) – NEISA Women's Fleet Racing Championship/Reed Trophy (Brunswick, Maine), NEISA Open Fleet Racing Championship/Coast Guard Alumni Bowl (Providence, Rhode Island), Boston Dinghy Club Challenge (Cambridge, Mass.).
