WASHINGTON – The Georgetown University sailing team finished second on Monday in the LaserPerformance Team Race National Championship at regatta host site Sail Newport Sailing Center in Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island. The Hoyas finished second overall with a 20-5 record, one loss behind first place winner Yale with a 21-4 record.
 
The top sixteen collegiate team racing teams in the nation competed for the national title and the Walter C. Wood Trophy. This was the second of three spring college sailing national championships hosted by Brown University with the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) also supported by Harvard University.
 
The format for the LaserPerformance Team Race was a series of round robins. In the first round, all 16 teams raced each other once, which determined places 9-16. The top eight teams then advanced to a single round robin to determine places 5-8. The top four remaining teams advanced to a "final four", which was another single round to determine the top four places.
 
The competitors sailed on a digital N course, which had a windward mark, a windward offset mark rounded to starboard and then down to a leeward mark with another leeward offset rounded to port and finish upwind. The N course allowed for long upwind and downwind legs – prime for team racing. The sailors raced in both FJs and Z420s.
 
Yale started out strong from the very beginning and sat in first place with an undefeated record. The Blue & Gray was in second place with a record of 8-2 and the two losses coming from Boston College and Navy.
 
"In our Boston College race, we did not start off well and in the Navy race we got a red flag at an unfortunate time and could not come back from it," said Head Coach Mike Callahan. "It was very close racing on Saturday and the competition was very good – the best it's been."
 
Going into the final four, Yale was already the winner after Sunday's racing concluded, but the three other teams, including GU, each had a chance to take second place given the right circumstances. Each race was challenging and there were many races that were not determined until right at the finish line.
 
The Hoyas came out strong on the water Monday morning and won all three of its races, finishing in second place overall.
 
"We had all good racing Monday morning with no mistakes," said Callahan. "It felt more like our bread and butter conditions, similar to what we practice in on the Potomac River. We finished the regatta strong and I am really proud of the team."
 
The Georgetown lineup consisted of 13 Hoyas. Andy Reiter (San Diego, Calif. / Point Loma), Jack Reiter (Point Loma, Calif. / Point Loma), Sean Segerblom (Costa Mesa, Calif. / Newport Harbor), William Logue (Cos Cob, Conn. / St. George's) and Andrew Person (Newport Beach, Calif. / Newport Harbor) served as the skippers. Haley Shea (Rye, N.Y. / Rye Country Day), Claire Mohun (San Francisco, Calif. / Convent of the Sacred Heart), Marley Mais (Newport Beach, Calif. / Newport Harbor), Caroline Teare (St. Thomas, Virgin Islands / Antilles School), Rebecca Fung (Rye, N.Y. / Rye), Noah Kelleher (Upton, Mass. / Concord Academy), Jack Hogan (Los Angeles, Calif. / Harvard-Westlake) and Lucy Beimfohr (Short Hills, N.J. / Deerfield Academy) served as the crews.
 
Results (top 4 of 16): 1. Yale (21-4); 2. Georgetown (20-5); 3. Stanford (17-8); 4. Dartmouth (15-10)
 
Georgetown Lineup:
Skippers: Andy Reiter, Jack Reiter, Sean Segerblom, William Logue, Andrew Person
Crews: Haley Shea, Claire Mohun, Marley Mais, Caroline Teare, Rebecca Fung, Noah Kelleher, Jack Hogan, Lucy Beimfohr