WASHINGTON - The Georgetown coed and women's sailing teams have had a strong start to their seasons winning eight events and establishing themselves as one of the strongest teams in the country.

The women's team has had its strongest start ever to a season winning two events. In its first competition of the year at the Navy Fall Women's Regatta, they competed against the top teams from the area.  At the end of two days of racing, the team came away with a whopping 45-point win over second place St. Mary's and a 118-point lead over host Navy.  Sailing in her first ever collegiate event freshman Emily Doble combined with her experienced crew senior Morgan Rice to win the B division by 23 points. Juniors Kelly Bates and Margot Gordon won the A division as well.  

The women's team's second doublehanded regatta was September 21-22 at Cornell.  The Top 9 Regatta featured the top nine women's teams from the MAISA Conference.  Once again the Hoyas dominated, winning the event by 45 points over second place Cornell. Senior Piper Holthus and freshman crew Scarlett Harris won the A division by 36 points.  In the B division, Doble sailed with Gordon and Rice to win by nine points.  

The women's team had its first taste of National Championship-level competition last weekend at the Atlantic Coast Championship Series Round 1.  The regatta featured many of the top teams in the country.  The squad battled all weekend with Stanford, Harvard, Dartmouth and Yale in the top 5 and ended up in fourth just eight points out of second place.  In the A division Holthus and Scarlett Harris finished third out of 18.  The Hoyas had four sailors (Kelly Bates, Emily Doble, Margot Gordon, Morgan Rice) rotate in the B division to finish tied for fourth out of 18.  It marked the best finish at that event for the women's team in a number of years and bodes well for the future.

The coed team is also off to a blistering start winning all five of its doublehanded regattas so far this fall.  The team started out by winning the Riley Cup at Old Dominion.  It followed that up by winning two events at Navy the following weekend – the Chesapeake Open and Chesapeake Invite.  The Invite regatta featured the top three boats from MAISA schools.  The Hoyas ended the regatta with a 17-point win over second place St. Mary's College of Maryland.  Diego Escobar and Harris won the B division and Enzo Menditto and Spencer Kriegstein finished first in the C division.  At the Open Regatta, the Hoyas came away with a seven-point win over Navy.  In the 18-team event, Peter Barnard and Anna Brzezinski won the A division while Doble and Lucy Jervis finished second in B.  

The coed team also traveled to Cornell for the Coed Top 9 regatta which featured the top nine teams from the conference.  At the end of two days of sailing, the team came away with a 43-point win over second place Navy.  Mateo DiBlasi and Caro Gaston won the A division by 40 points, and Escobar and Brzezinski won B division by three points.  

The Hoyas' singlehanded and match racing squads were also busy at work trying to qualify for their respective National Championships.  The MAISA Women's Singlehanded Championships was up first on September 14-15.  At the end of two long days of racing, Holthus ended up in second overall just five points out of first.  While Holthus didn't receive an automatic bid to nationals, the second-place finish will be in the running to earn a berth.  Junior Alexa Shea ended up in sixth overall, freshman Abi Chang finished in ninth and sophomore Izzy Massey finished in 13th.  

The coed team had two singlehanded events this fall.  In the qualifier for the conference championship, Barnard won the last three races to secure the overall win.  Junior Benjamin Smith finished in third and senior Anson Walker finished in 15th.  Barnard And Smith then earned berths to the MAISA Singlehanded Championship last weekend.  After a grueling two days of racing, Barnard came away with the win – his first singlehanded conference championship.  Barnard secured an automatic berth to the National Championship in November.  Smith rallied on the last day to finish third overall which should be enough to receive an at large selection.  

The match race team battled some difficult injuries and had a very limited time to practice but still came away with a second-place finish at the MAISA Match Racing Conference Championship.  The team of Menditto, Kriegstein, Bates and Barnard has a chance at being selected for the National Championship in November as an at large team.

 This weekend the coed team travels to St. Mary's College for the first round of their Atlantic Coast Championship Series.