CRANSTON, R.I. – No. 1 Harvard Sailing lived up to its national ranking and won the 2025 ICSA Open Team Race National Championship on Saturday. The title was the fourth in school history and second in the last three seasons.
In a spring campaign that featured mostly wet weather, it was fitting that the Crimson had to overcome rainy conditions en route to the crown.
With rain in the forecast for Saturday, the field finished the Round of 16 on Friday and got as much of the Round of 8 in as possible. For Harvard, that meant having to complete five Round-of-8 races on the final day and the Crimson passed each test. Harvard downed Stanford (1-3-4), Brown (1-2-6) and Dartmouth (1-2-4) to start, setting up a showdown with second-place Yale. The Crimson answered the bell, finishing 1-3-5, creating a crucial two-win gap between it and the Bulldogs. Harvard then finished the round with a 1-2-3 performance against third-place Roger Williams, which opened up a three-win spread over the Hawks.
The victory over Roger Williams put the Crimson at 19-3 for the regatta and firmly atop the leaderboard. Yale (17-5) and RWU (16-6) joined them in the Final Four, with a sail-off required for the last spot between Brown (13-9) and Stanford (13-9). The Cardinal eventually punched its ticket as the championship rolled on.
Harvard ended up paired with Stanford in its first race and dismissed its West Coast foe, 1-2-5, which essentially clinched the title. The decision put the Crimson up two wins with two races to go. Harvard ended up falling to Roger Williams (4-5-6) and Yale (3-4-5), finishing the regatta with a title-securing record of 20-5. Yale ended at 19-6 and was followed by RWU (18-7) and Stanford (14-11).
Representing the Crimson on Championship Saturday were skippers
Justin Callahan,
Mitchell Callahan and
Robby Meek, and crew
Kennedy Leehealey,
Aidan Pesce,
Rosella Irfan,
Alexandra Dorofeev.
Harvard, which fell short of winning the 2024 championship by a half-win, continues its time in Cranston, Rhode Island, tomorrow with Day One of the ICSA Women's Team Race National Championship. The Crimson finished in a program-best fifth place a year ago on the Charles River. The action in The Ocean State is slated to begin at 10 a.m. ET.
