With the No. 2 women’s team and the No. 5 co-ed team in the nation, Georgetown sailing has its sight set at the top for fall.

The women ended last year with a third-place finish, their highest ever, at the spring championships and are ranked second this preseason by Sailing World’s coaches panel, putting them in position to contend for the top spot.

“They have a very good shot of winning the national championship,” Head Coach Mike Callahan said.

Senior Derby Anderson and sophomore Blaire Herron return to anchor the team. Both were honorable mention all-Americans last year, even though Anderson was abroad for the fall semester. Herron was one of just four freshmen overall to receive the all-American honor.

The co-ed team looks to dominate with its own roster of all-Americans, including three-time awardee Andrew Campbell, a senior. Although the Hoyas lost all-American crews Dorothee Bergin and Barbara Hall to graduation, junior crew Caroline LaMotte returns this year.

The sailing team generally competes in three different kinds of regattas each weekend: ladder events to qualify for the national championships, intersectionals featuring national competition; and intraconference events within the division. Georgetown competes in the MAISA division, sailing against other Mid-Atlantic schools.

Coming off of a gold medal at the World University Games in Izmir, Turkey, Campbell will represent the Hoyas at the Navy Laser Open this weekend in Annapolis, Md. The regatta is the first opportunity for sailors to qualify for the fall national single-handed championship, which Campbell has already won twice.

“We’re pretty confident that he’ll win by a lot” at the qualifier, Callahan said. “He usually does.”

Callahan said that he is looking forward to this weekend’s Riley Cup in Norfolk, Va., to which he sends his top first-year sailors.

“For us, it’s a good way to see how good our freshmen are when they come in, and how well they stack up against the other freshmen in the division,” he said.

Freshmen Nik Holtan and Carly Chamberlain will race together as skipper and crew in the B division. In the A division, junior skipper J.B. Turney will pair up with crew Liz Rapp.

Callahan named Turney one of his top returning sailors on this year’s co-ed team, along with sophomore Chris Behm, junior Langdon Mitchell and senior Ed DuMoulin. DuMoulin and Behm, whom Callahan called his top recruit from last year, will compete in the Captain Hurst Bowl, an intersectional, in Hanover, N.H., this weekend.

“Dartmouth is a tough place to sail, but we’re looking to finish in the top half,” Callahan said.