Once, twice, three times a college sailing record. Georgetown senior Andrew Campbell became the first sailor to win the ICSA men’s singlehanded championship three times at the annual regatta last weekend. The only year that Campbell did not win was his sophomore year, when he took time off to vie for an Olympic bid. “It feels great,” Campbell said. “There was a lot of pressure going into the regatta, [because you] kind of expect yourself to win. To actually go out and do that is really satisfying.” Campbell won the event, held in Honolulu, with 64 points, 15 ahead of Harvard junior Clay Johnson. The regatta did not begin so smoothly for Campbell, though. In the first race, he had to restart, resulting in an eighth place finish out of 16 competitors. But he was able to recover afterwards, placing in the top three for races three to eight. Campbell’s ability to climb back from behind set him apart from the other sailors, Georgetown Head Coach Mike Callahan said. Callahan also mentioned that Johnson had one race in which he finished 15th. Campbell and Johnson are familiar with each other on the sailing circuit, having raced against each other since childhood. “I’ve raced against him a ton before,” Campbell said. “He’s been in the top group for a long time, and I’ve known him since we were really young. He’s always a really tough competitor.” Coming in third and fourth place were Kings Point sophomore Chris Branning and Harvard senior Vincent Porter, who won the championship the year Campbell did not compete. They kept the scores close, finishing with 86 and 89 points, respectively. “All these guys are people that I’ve sailed against before. It was just a good feeling to be sailing with them, much less beat them,” Campbell said. For Campbell, the key to the regatta was to sail conservatively. “I just tried to be patient. I knew that I had the speed to win the regatta, it was just a matter of letting things fall into place,” he said, adding that he probably sailed “at 85 percent all the time rather than 100.” The strategy seemed to work, even in an environment that did not lend itself to Campbell’s strengths. “The water where we were was really flat on top,” Callahan said. “Andrew is really good at sailing in waves. That kind of negated one of his advantages.” The trade winds coming from the mountains and valleys of Oahu did not help matters, either. “Because the wind is shifting, there’s not a lot of straight-line sailing. That negated another [advantage],” Callahan said. But once Campbell took the lead after four races, he never let it go. He eventually earned so comfortable a lead that he could have sat out the last race and still won the title. “I knew the regatta was in the bag; I just had to finish,” he said. “Knowing that I had the regatta clinched was a really satisfying moment.” The Hoyas, who did not compete in the scheduled SAISA/MAISA intersectional, will close out the 2005 fall season at the Timme Angsten Regatta in Chicago, Ill. Friday through Sunday.