By many other teams’ standards, the end of the season that the Georgetown sailors enjoyed would be considered a resounding success. The Hoyas, however, are two years removed from a national championship and were following another phenomenal year, so merely finishing in the top five or six at any given regatta is not as gratifying as it might be on other campuses.

The end to the fall season began two weekends ago, when star junior Charlie Buckingham and freshman Chris Barnard – who hail from the same California high school – headed southwest to Corpus Christi, Texas, where the ICSA Men’s Singlehanded National Championship was being held. Head Coach Michael Callahan is well aware of the significance of the achievement of his two sailors, who were the first pair of Hoyas to get invited to the national championships.

“It was the first time we’d ever gotten two people to qualify for the national championship,” Callahan said. “[It is] the top 18 sailors in the country. … There were a couple of kids in the regatta who have gone to the Olympics.”

It would have been easy for both Hoyas to be intimidated by the accolades and impressive honors that much of their competition boasted, but Buckingham and Barnard handled themselves well. It is a testament to Buckingham’s talent, who during his time on the Hilltop has shown that he is one of the elite sailors in the country time and again, that his sixth-place finish can be considered a mild disappointment. A series of poor starts – and a resultant 19-point penalty in one case – put him in a few holes out of which even near-perfect sailing could not dig him.

“Charlie just had a series of unfortunate things happen,” Callahan reflected. “In the last race of the regatta, he fell out of the boat right after the start. He still ended up sixth in the race, but he probably would have won that race and that probably would have put him in third overall.”

The less experienced Barnard, however, avoided those kinds of mistakes and took consistent advantage of the lighter-than-expected winds en route to a fourth-place finish.

“[Barnard] was one point out of third,” Callahan said. “That was the best regatta I’ve seen him sail on that boat; he was really consistent.”

Ultimately, though, Callahan knows that nothing but good things can come from two of his top sailors getting this experience.

“The takeaway from that was that Chris sailed really well,” Callahan said. “I’m a little disappointed for Charlie because I know he wanted to do better, but excited for Chris that he did as well as he did.”

Buckingham returned to action this past weekend when the coed team traveled up to Boston to compete in the coed Atlantic Coast Championships, hosted by Harvard. Buckingham and senior crew Alexandra Taylor earned third place in the A-division while junior Evan Aras and senior Caila Johnson placed sixth in the B-division. These results are particularly impressive in light of the challenging conditions on the Charles River in Boston, where the regatta was held. Callahan – who went to high school in Marion, Mass. – is familiar with the usually difficult conditions on the Charles, and was impressed with how his sailors handled themselves.

“We were just a few points out of first place,” Callahan said. “It was the first time we had sailed [on the Charles]. Coming out with a fifth place finish was not bad at all.”

The women’s team has also been busy these past two weekends, first at the conference championship race in Norfolk, Va., and more recently at the women’s Atlantic Coast Championships in Providence, R.I.

The Blue and Gray struggled to a fourth place finish in the conference championships, behind Hobart, Old Dominion and St. Mary’s. The result was frustrating for the team and its coach, given that not all of the competitions were fielding their true “A” teams.

“[It] didn’t go great for us,” Callahan lamented. “It was disappointing that we didn’t do well at that regatta. … We’re certainly more talented than [that] finish dictated.”

This past weekend, however, the result was much more encouraging. Although the team finished fifth, the Hoyas were facing much stiffer competition than they had the previous weekend. In fact, the Blue and Gray exacted a small measure of revenge by finishing ahead of all the teams that had beaten them the previous weekend in Norfolk. The performance of sophomores Sydney Bolger and Rebecca Evans was particularly notable, as their first-place finish in the A-division earned them a place in the Georgetown record books.

“They beat all the teams from our conference, and that was much better, much more appropriate for people that are that good,” Callahan said. “[This was] the first time we’ve had a women’s team at Georgetown win A-division at that regatta, which is almost typically more difficult than nationals because you have a lot more East Coast teams.”

Although both the coed and women’s teams would have benefited from being slightly more consistent, their performances in New England this past weekend proved that they are not planning on slipping from the ranks of the elite anytime soon.

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