It was a tough regatta both for the difficult conditions and the intense competition. The top five teams did a lot of swapping places on the scoreboard and it was tight racing up until the last race of the day.
Georgetown took home the win only five points ahead of second place overall and won the Henry A. Morss Memorial Trophy, which was donated by a group of nationally known yachtsmen as a memorial to Henry A. Morss, a Boston yachtsman and 1907 Bermuda Race winner, as well as an MIT alumnus and benefactor. This is the 80th anniversary of the event and trophy.
“My nerves are frayed,” says Mike Callahan, head coach for Georgetown. “Today was incredibly stressful and luckily my assistant coach Janel [Zarkowsky] was fantastic and did a good job staying calm.”
“We sent our B-division boat out for the last race and by design did not tell them the point spread – we wanted them to just have a good race – so when they crossed the finish line they didn’t even know that we had won,” Callahan says. “It hasn’t totally set in yet, but we are so happy to win this event and everyone sailed really well.”
“This event was definitely challenging,” says Nevin Snow, who was sailing in his hometown. “But that will always be the case with Nationals, it’s about who can execute and string together the races, and we all stuck together as a team.”
Sailing for Georgetown was Nevin Snow ’16 and Meaghan MacRae ’18 in A-division and Sean Golden ’16 with Isabelle Ruiz De Luzuriaga ’16 and Campbell D’Eliscu ’19 in B-division.
U.S. Coast Guard Academy finished in second place moving up from fourth place after yesterday’s racing. They finished four points ahead of third place overall and won the Oxford University Trophy. This is the second year in a row that they have finished second at this regatta.
The Oxford University Trophy is awarded to the second place team in the Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship. The Oxford University Yacht Club team and its captain Jeremy Thomas presented this trophy in 1954 on the occasion of the first of a continuing series of college regattas between British and North American teams held alternately in the United States and Great Britain every two years.
“Today was beyond stressful but extremely exciting,” says Brian Swingly, head coach for Coast Guard. “The sailors were able to focus on sailing and were very professional – we didn’t talk about scores today.”
“This was the most competitive and toughest fleet of the year, but we tried to make it like any other day,” he says.
Sailing for Coast Guard was Avery Fanning ’16 and Robert Turley ’16 in A-division and Nikole Barnes ’17 and Anna Morin ’19 in B-division.
Yale University finished in third place, winning the Metropolitan Sailing League Trophy, which was first presented in 1971. Yale is the defending champion of the regatta and sailed strongly, but could not hold onto the lead that they had after yesterday’s racing.
“Today was about who could get off the line well and hold their lane,” says Bill Healy, assistant coach for Yale, “Georgetown just did it consistently better.”
“We made a change in B-division today hoping it would push us to the top,” Healy says. “Everyone on the team sailed really well and it was great to have Ian and Meredith win their division for the third year in a row.”
Sailing for Yale was Ian Barrows ’17 and Meredith Megarry ’17 in A-division and Nicholas Baird ’19, Joseph Kiss ’17, Charlotte Belling ’16, Isabelle Rossi De Leon ’17 and Clara Robertson ’17 in B-division.
The Robert Allan, Sr. and Robert Allan, Jr. Trophies are awarded to the low point “A” and “B” teams, respectively, in the Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship. Ian Barrows ‘17 and Meredith Megarry ‘17 won A-division from Yale with 119 points, eight points ahead of second place. Augie Dale ’18 and Kaylie Gallagher ’16 from Old Dominion University won B-division with 123 points, four points ahead of second place.
FINAL OVERALL RESULTS 1. Georgetown University, 257 2. U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 262 3. Yale University, 266 4. Boston College, 275 5. Old Dominion University, 283 6. Stanford University, 289 7. U.S. Naval Academy, 335* 8. Boston University, 335* 9. University of South Florida, 338 10. College of Charleston, 348 11. Brown University, 351 12. Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 353 13. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 382 14. Roger Williams University, 396 15. Connecticut College, 402 16. University of Pennsylvania, 411 17. George Washington University, 425 18. Fordham University, 448 *Head-to-head tiebreaker
