Heading into the final race of the district women’s singlehanded championships, Georgetown senior Jackie Schmitz needed to finish within two places of her nearest competitor, Navy sophomore Charlotte Hill, to guarantee herself the fourth and final spot for the national championships in Hawaii.

She finished in seventh. Hill finished fourth, putting the two in a tie at 114 points.

“It came down to the wire,” Georgetown Head Coach ike Callahan said. “She had one bad move during the race, and that kind of cost her.”

In sailing, the individual with the most first-place finishes wins the tiebreaker. Hill’s only top finish was enough to edge out Schmitz, who never finished higher than second, and Hill earned the qualifying finish.

Close, but no cigar.

“It was a little tough, but it was a good regatta overall,” Schmitz said. “There was some good competition out there. … Everyone was on the line every race.”

Sailors from St. Mary’s won the two top spots, as seniors Katie Smith and Jenny Gervais finished with 88 and 99 points, respectively. Columbia sophomore Katie Simon took third with 104 points.

Georgetown placed two other sailors in the top 10 of the 28-boat regatta in Annapolis, Md. Senior Derby Anderson came in seventh with 134 points, and sophomore Blaire Herron finished ninth with 187 points.

“Going into that weekend I expected Derby and Blaire to probably do the best for our team, based on how they sailed in practice,” Callahan said. “I was happy with both girls,” he added.

Junior Jessica Stewart rounded out the Hoyas’ entries in 18th place with 259 points.

“All of us … had some really good races, and some less good ones,” Schmitz said. “Consistency really played out over the course of the regatta.”

For her part, Schmitz mostly finished races in fifth or sixth place with a couple of thirds. Hill, on the other hand, finished third, 19th and third in her first three races on Saturday. But by Sunday Hill had found her rhythm, collecting first, second and three fourths in the day’s five races.

Hill will join Smith, Gervais and Simon at the ICSA Singlehanded North American Championships in Honolulu on Nov. 18-20.

Last weekend Georgetown also participated in the MAISA Freshman Championships in Annapolis. Although the Hoyas placed fifth out of 16 teams, their coach was hoping for the top three.

“It was not our best performance,” Callahan said. “But, you know, they’re freshmen. They’re expected to make mistakes.”

In the A division, crews Madeleine Maguire and Sprague Brodie split time with skipper Nick Holtan finished fifth with a total of 83 points. Emily Babbitt served as skipper for the B-division team, taking fourth with 72 points overall. Andi Bailey and Brooke Crawford both spent time at crew.

“It was very inconsistent,” Callahan said. “Occasionally they would get a good race, but they got a lot of fourth, fifth and sixth finishes when we wanted top three.”

The regatta is significant because the coaches use the results to gauge the ability of their recruiting class. “We haven’t finished that far back in a while,” Callahan said, noting that the Hoyas won the regatta by nearly 60 points last year. “Hopefully it’s not too ominous. I think they can sail better.”

Georgetown’s third event of the weekend was a success as the Hoyas captured first place overall at the Hanbury Cup in Newport News, Va.

“Georgetown has a history of going to this regatta and beating everybody,” redshirt junior A-team skipper Dan Monico said. “Sailing at practice is probably more competitive than it is at [this regatta.]”

Monico and crew Katherine Wade finished with 36 points in the A division, good for first.

“We were pretty consistent,” Wade said. “The courses they have there are pretty short, so it was important to get a good start.”

Callahan said that he was especially impressed with onico’s performance.

In the B division, sophomore Matt Bergin made his first start at Georgetown. He and senior Clare Starshak finished with 49 points for second place.

“They sailed really well, really consistently,” onico said about Bergin and Starshak.

Eight schools from Virginia, D.C. and Maryland participated in the event, and Christopher Newport University played host.

The Hoyas will be busy next weekend as they split up to compete at four regattas. The national championship season begins with sloops in Gulf Lake, Mich., tomorrow. Although it is only the first time since 1998 that Georgetown has qualified for the sloops national championship, Callahan is “confident” that the team will do well.

Georgetown will also play host to the Luce Trophy Regatta and send teams to the War Memorial Regatta in Norfolk, Va., and the Princeton Women’s Fall Open in Princeton, N.J.