Sailing Qualifies for National Semifinals at USC
Sailing Qualifies for National Semifinals at USC
The MIT sailing team qualified for the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association National Championship Western Semifinals with a sixth-place finish at the New England Dinghy Championships, hosted by Salve Regina University this past weekend. The semifinals will be hosted by the University of Southern California on April 26-27.
B-Division skipper Brooks L. Reed ’09 and crew Elizabeth A. Hass ’10 placed second in their circuit to lead the team to a resounding sixth place out of 18 teams at the Championships.
Reed and Hass finished in the top five in half of the ten rounds, including a fifth-place slot in the fifth joust. The duo placed first in its group in Saturday’s four rounds, in which heavy fog and thunderstorms delayed the day’s races. They also held the fort on Sunday, despite heavy current and shifty conditions amid a breeze ranging from five to twelve knots.
The A-Division team of skipper John M. “Jack” Field ’08 and Julie C. Arsenault ’08 placed eleventh, while topping the board in the seventh round. Field and Arsenault also placed fifth in the second tilt.
Boston College won the event with a score of 55.
The ICSA National Championship Western Semifinals will be hosted by USC in FJ boats, while the Eastern Semifinals will be held at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y. in 420s (dinghy). The two events will have a collective thirty six teams competing (eighteen at each event) with the top nine finishers from each semifinal advancing to the grand finale, the ICSA/Gill Coed National Championship.
—Mike Stoller, DAPER Staff