WASHINGTON - The Georgetown University sailing team continued its winning ways as the Hoyas won the War Memorial Regatta for the Mid-Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association (MAISA) Coed Conference Championship last weekend in Ithaca, N.Y. The weekend prior, the Hoyas won two of three regatttas (MAISA Match Race Championship, Kings Point Regatta), and finished second at the MAISA Women's Conference Championship.

War Memorial Regatta: MAISA Coed Conference Championship, Oct. 31 ââ'¬" Nov. 1 (Ithaca, N.Y.)
The No. 1-ranked Georgetown University coed sailing team won the War Memorial Regatta for the MAISA Coed Conference Championship last weekend, hosted by Cornell University, on Lake Cayuga. The Hoyas faced some of the most challenging conditions possible.

Saturday saw very light winds with huge differences in direction and velocity across the race course, making it very hard on the sailors to remain consistent. Both the A and B divisions for the Hoyas sailed well but each had a double-digit finish, leaving the team in third place overall behind St. Mary's College of Maryland and Hobart / William Smith.

Sunday's conditions, the wind was much stronger but equally as shifty, made for an entirely different regatta. In the A division Nevin Snow (San Diego, Calif./Cathedral Catholic) and Meaghan MacRae (Melrose, Mass./Tabor Academy) did their best to stay on the favored side of the course each race. Despite an inability to win a lot of races, the duo's consistent presence among the top allowed them to win the division by 15 points. This put the pressure on the B division tandem of Sean Golden (Duxbury, Mass./Tabor Academy) and Isabelle Luzuriaga (Charleston, S.C./Ashley Hall). Going into the last two races the Hoyas had built an 11-point lead over St. Mary's College.

The first race of the set saw the wind shift hard to the right and pick up to about 15-20mph. Golden and Luzuriaga hung on for an eighth-place finish but St. Mary's was able to pick up points and pull within six points. As the wind increased, a lineup change put senior Jack Welty (Phoenix, Ariz./Brophy Prep) in for Luzuriaga.

The wind in the last race gusted as high as 30 mph with large wind shifts coming over the hills around the lake. Golden and Welty started ahead of St. Mary's and covered them well upwind rounding the first mark about four places ahead. St. Mary's closed the gap on the run leg but Golden and Welty maintained control upwind. As they were covering St. Mary's on the final beat to windward a large shift nearly capsized the Hoyas to windward. With the boat full of water and the wind and the waves increasing, the Blue & Gray still managed to stay ahead of St. Mary's going around the last mark. On the final run to the finish, as Welty bailed water out of the Hoya boat, St. Mary's was able to surf the waves and plane ahead of the Hoyas and a pack of boats right at the finish. The Hoyas held on for 11th-place, still securing a one-point victory.

This is the fifth-consecutive year the Hoyas have won the War Memorial Regatta, an event in existence since 1964. In that time, no other team has ever won the event more than three years in a row. The Hoyas qualified for the Coed Atlantic Coast Championships in two weeks at Old Dominion University.

Overall Top 8 of 18 (A division points / B division points / total)
1. Georgetown (30 / 55 / 85)
2. St. Mary's (45 / 41 / 86)
3. George Washington University (45 / 45 / 90)
4. Cornell University (53 / 45 / 98)
5. Hobart / William Smith (52 / 49 / 101)
6. SUNY Maritime College (73 / 43 / 116)
7. Old Dominion University (69 / 57 / 126)
8. U. S. Naval Academy (84 / 45 / 129)

A division: Nevin Snow / Meaghan MacRae (1st, 30 points)
B division: Sean Golden / Isabelle Luzuriaga, Jack Welty (7th, 55 points)

MAISA Match Race Championships, Oct. 24-25
The two-time reigning national champion Georgetown Hoyas match race team hit the water for the first time this fall in its quest for a third-straight national title. The team lost two key members with the graduation of Katia DaSilva and Alex Post. Their replacements for the 2015 season are Meaghan MacRae and freshman Campbell D'Eliscu (Newport Beach, Calif./Newport Harbor). The format of the regatta called for a single round robin among the eight teams followed by a final four and final two. During the round robin the Hoyas had some good races while faltering in others, owning a 5-2 record with their two losses coming to New York Maritime and St. Mary's College.

The Hoyas were the No. 2 seed going into the Final Four, pitting them against No. 3 N.Y. Maritime. The Blue & Gray swept the series winning both races with ease, setting up a showdown with perennial powerhouse St. Mary's. The Hoyas proved they were up to the task and swept the closely contested series 2-0.

Georgetown advances to the Match Race National Championship, held Nov. 20-22 at the College of Charleston in Charleston, S.C.

Results (Top 4 of 8)
1. Georgetown
2. St. Mary's College
3. US Merchant Marine Academy Kings Point
4. New York Maritime

MAISA Fall Women's Championships, Oct. 24-25 (St. Mary's City, Md.)
The then-No. 1 Georgetown women's sailing team sailed well over the course of the two-day MAISA Fall Women's Championship, but GU as unable to beat crosstown rival George Washington, a team that won its first-ever MAISA Conference Championship. The Hoyas had good speed and good starts all weekend but a few missed wind shifts put them too far behind GW. Both the A and B squads finished second in their divisions. The second-place finish qualifies the team for the Atlantic Coast Championships and combined with the first-place finish at the spring 2015 championship helped clinch the No. 1 schedule for the 2016 season.

Division Results
A division: Mary Kate Mezzetti / Bettina Redway (2nd)
B division: Rosie Edwards / Liz Mullarney (2nd)

Kings Point CoedRegatta, Oct. 24-25 (Kings Point, N.Y.)
At the Kings Point Coed Regatta the Hoya coed team showed its depth by winning both the A and B divisions to dominate the regatta. In the A division Jack Gerli (Greenwich, Conn./Hotchkiss) and Kiara Boswick (Wyckoff, N.J./Ramapo) won the first two races and four of the first five en route to a 24-point division win. In the B division Roger Dorr (Sands Point, N.Y./St. George's School) and Maggie Cirullo (Holmdel, N.J./Red Bank Catholic) started off slowly with a 10th- and fifth-place finish, but won the next two races and eventually won their division by 11 points.

Overall Top 3 of 20
1. Georgetown (30 / 37 / 67)
2. George Washington (70 / 48 / 118)
3. Old Dominion (67 / 53 / 120)