The past two weekends have posed major tests for the second-ranked Georgetown University sailing team in the form of the conference team and fleet racing championships.

Two weeks ago, the Hoyas participated in the conference team racing championship, an event in which Georgetown sailors have not been victorious since 2004. Even in the 2006 national championship year, the Hoyas could only manage a third-place finish in the conference championships, so Head Coach Mike Callahan knew that a strong finish would bode well for the Hoyas’ title hopes.

Complicating matters for the Hoyas was a strong fourth-ranked Saint Mary’s team that won 10 of 14 team races against the Georgetown sailors this year. This time, however, the Hoyas prevailed in two of their three head-to-head matchups with Saint Mary’s en route to a first place finish. This long-overdue conference championship also guaranteed the Hoyas a No. 1 seed in one of the regional brackets when the national championship gets underway in California in a few weeks.

However, the team had no time to rest on its laurels, as the Georgetown sailors had to compete in the conference’s fleet racing championship this past weekend. Unlike the team racing championship, this was an event in which the Hoyas have recently experienced much success, having won the program’s first two conference championships in 2007 and 2008.

aking the task of winning a third-straight title even more monumental was the fact that no Georgetown team had ever won both the conference fleet and team racing championships in the same year.

However, the Hoyas were able to make history thanks to a second-place finish in the A division by sophomore Charlie Buckingham and junior Alexandra Taylor, coupled with a first-place finish in the B division by sophomore Evan Aras and junior Caila Johnson. Although this finish did not guarantee the Hoyas a berth in the national championship, the Hoyas’ performance earned them a No. 1 seed in the Eastern regional semifinals, which will take place in Boston in two weeks. If the Hoyas finish in the top nine in Boston, they will lock up a spot in the national championship.

The Lady Hoyas will take their crack at the conference championship this weekend and look to earn either an automatic berth in the national championship or a spot in the qualifiers with a strong performance this weekend. A finish in the top two spots would guarantee the women’s team a spot in the championship, while finishing anywhere from third to sixth would be good enough for a spot in the national qualifiers.

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