Sailing starts season strong
Engineers capture 3rd, 4th, 5th and 9th places
The MIT sailing team kicked off its season by competing in three events this past weekend. The Engineers captured fifth place out of 20 teams at the Harry Anderson Trophy, finished ninth at the Toni Deutsch Trophy, and took third and fourth at the Harvard Invitational.
Skipper Eamon M. Glackin ’12 and crew Kelden M. Pehr ’13 placed second in the opening round of the Harry Anderson Trophy and went on to record three more top five finishes en route to a sixth place performance in the A Division. Andrew Z. Sommer ’13 collaborated with Stephanie Tong ’12 and Steven G. Drapcho ’13 to rank eighth in the B Division while posting five top 10 performances. Sommer, the skipper for all 10 rounds, earned the top spot in the ninth rotation with Drapcho and was third in the second heat with Tong.
Wisconsin earned top honors in the event with 138 points, followed by Harvard (147), host Yale (148), Boston College (164), and MIT (173).
Competing in its lone home event, captain Jacqueline M. Soegaard ’12 guided a young women’s squad to ninth place at the Toni Deutsch Trophy. In the A Division, sophomores Hanna M. Vincent ’13 and Grace Anne C. Young ’13 ranked sixth behind the strength of 10 top five performances. The duo was first in the 16th round and captured fourth on four occasions. Freshman skipper Chloe Lepert ’15 teamed with Soegaard in the first 18 rounds of B Division action while Laura J. Dunphy ’15 and Iris Xu ’14 closed out the race for the Engineers, who ranked eighth. The quartet finished in the top 10 in 19 of 26 rounds and had seven placements in the top five.
Brown edged out Boston College by three points to win the event while Yale, Roger Williams University, and Dartmouth rounded out the top five. The trophy is named after Toni Deutsch ’58, a distinguished alumna who was a member of the sailing team that won several national championships and was the first woman to receive a varsity letter at MIT.
In the one day, four-team Harvard Invitational, MIT entered two squads, the Engineers and the Beavers, which placed third and fourth, respectively. Tufts University won the competition with 47 points while the host Crimson came in second.
The Engineers’ A Division boat, comprised of senior Tevis Nichols ’12 and classmate Neil T. Forrester ’12, placed third with 42 points while Santiago Cuellar ’12 and David Rodriguez Fuentes ’13 accumulated 48 points to finish fourth in the B Division.
Javier E. Ramos ’12 and Nicholas W. Paggi ’15 totaled 60 points in their fourth place A Division outing. Taylor S. Burfield ’13 and Patricia E. Saylor ’14 wrapped up the race with 40 points and a third place finish in the B Division. Tech next competes in the Hatch Brown this weekend.