Sept. 13, 2011

MAISA Laser Qualifier @ Navy

1st Chris Barnard

8th Matt Gowell

9th Michael Schalka

20 of MAISA's best Singlehanded Sailors came to Navy this weekend to compete for a chance to qualify for the MAISA Singlehanded Conference Championship and then hopefully a berth to the National Championship. The regatta was sailed in extremely light winds - the minimum to race is 3.25mph and winds barely gusted above 4mph all weekend. A total of nine races were sailed. Junior Chris Barnard dominated the event with his best collegiate performance to date. Chris won 8 of the 9 races sailed and was generally winning races by a large margin. Chris' training this summer in both Europe and the US paid off with dominating performances. Sophomore Matt Gowell and Junior Michael Schalka narrowly missed a chance to qualify for the conference championship as they finished about 15 points out of a qualifying spot. Both Matt and Michael sail better in a little more wind and they had a few races out of the top 10 that hurt their overall results. Matt and Michael did have some really good races and they will have one more chance to make the conference championship at the 2nd Laser Qualifier in two weeks.

MAISA Laser Radial Qualifier @ Navy

7th Nancy Hagood

9th Merritt Moran

10th Lexi Coudert

The Hoya Women's team also took to the water this weekend at Navy in an effort to qualify for the MAISA Women's Singlehanded Conference Championship. The top ten boats from this regatta get to move on to the Championship and all three Hoyas made it. The light air was particularly hard on the radial sailors as their sails are smaller which makes it more difficult to keep the boat going fast. Nancy, Merritt and Lexi all improved over the course of the weekend and each had some races in the top 5. A little more wind at the championship and they can certainly do much better.

Riley Cup @ Old Dominion

A div. 1st w/13 points Alex Post / Katia Dasilva

B div. 4th w/ 24 points John Andril / Katie Olsen

The Riley Cup is the first 2 division event for the Hoyas in the 2011 season and its typically an event where we send our best freshman to compete against other conference teams. At the end of the weekend we finished one point out of first overall but more importantly we can tell that our freshmen are going to be very good. In A division Alex and Katia beat a really deep field of sailors including some local Norfolk, VA sailors who rarely if ever lose at home. Alex and Katie finished 1,2, in their first two races then finished no worse than 4th. In B division John and Katie started off with a seventh but got better every race. John and Katie had great boatspeed and won the last race of the regatta.

Next weekend the Hoyas will be competing in three events

Mrs. Hurst Regatta @ Dartmouth (FJs)

A div. : Amanda Taselaar /Hilary Kenyon

B div. : Nancy Hagood /Annalee Leggett

Nevins Trophy @ Kings Point (FJ, 420, Laser)

A div. : Sydney Bolger, Rebecca Evans

B div. : Matt Gowell, Kate Canty

C div. : Chris Barnard

Heavy Air Crew: Teddy Mark

Hatch Brown @ MIT (FJs)

A div. : Pete Johns /Tory Lynch

B div. : Andrew Mason /Leslie Cowen

C div. : Dan Eichler / Katia Dasilva