ST. MARY'S CITY, Md. – Defending national champion Harvard Sailing rallied from its second-place position entering today to win the ICSA Open Fleet Race Eastern Semifinal. The victory secured them a spot in the two-day final round, which begins Thursday.
 
The Crimson completed the 2-division, 10-race semifinal with a score of 123, overtaking Day-1 leader Brown, which accumulated a 126. The top nine schools in each semifinal moved on to the final and joining the two Ivy League schools from the Eastern semi were Navy (135), Tulane (139), St. Mary's (141), Rhode Island (148), MIT (154), George Washington (154) and Hobart & William (157).
 
On the Western side, Stanford (82), Yale (94), Bowdoin (143), Boston College (149), Dartmouth (153), Georgetown (153), College of Charleston (168), Tufts (178) and Miami (189) all punched their tickets to the championship round.
 
Harvard battled rain and varying winds, ranging from 5-12 knots, to get to this point. After opening with a finishing line of 1-3-1-3 on Tuesday, A-Division sailors Justin Callahan and Kennedy Leehealey struggled to get into a groove, posting a line of 10-11-10 for Races 5-7. The duo rebounded to come in fifth place in Race 8, before giving way to Robby Meek and Christina Chen. Meek-Chen went on to finish the last two races and came in third and 10^th to put a lid on the day.
 
Mitchell Callahan and Rosella Irfan, meanwhile, built on their momentum from Day 1, when they recorded a line of 12-6-1. The B-Division athletes opened second-day action with another sixth-place showing in Race 4 and came in 14^th in Race 5. After that, it was a clinic in consistency as they registered a line score of 4-2-7 in Races 6-8. Harrison Strom and Chen then finished off the last two races, coming in ninth and fifth place, respectively.
 
The Crimson will now look to continue its mission of claiming a second straight national title, with first-day finals action slated for Thursday.