The Georgetown sailing team took another step toward national dominance last weekend as the Hoyas qualified for the collegiate championship in sloop sailing.

Considering that Georgetown has only made it to nationals in sloops twice – the last time was in 1998 – this was no easy feat.

“We made a special focus this year to prepare for this event,” Georgetown Assistant Coach Bill Ward (MSB ’96) said. Ward, who qualified for the national sloops championship as a Georgetown undergraduate, took charge of the training for sloops this year.

In sloops, sailors use boats that are over 19 feet long – in this case, the 25-foot-8 Colgate 26 models – and there are at least three people to a boat.

“It’s a tough event because [they’re] unfamiliar boats for us,” Ward said. “The whole point is to put people in things that they’re not familiar with.”

Despite the obstacles, the Hoyas finished just one point behind St. Mary’s College to take second place out of 12 schools at the MAISA sloop championship, earning a slot at nationals, which will be held Oct. 29-30 at Gulf Lake, Mich.

“It was really tough because of the conditions. It was harder than it would normally have been,” Ward said, referring to the light winds that weekend in Annapolis, Md. “But it was great that they were able to gut it out and get it done.”

Senior Andrew Campbell served as the boat’s skipper, and juniors Seamus Craft and Dan Esdorn were the crews. The team scored 43 total points over the 11 races with mostly top-five finishes, including one first-place finish.

Going into the final race the Hoyas were in the lead, but Ward said that with the “fluky” conditions, “there was a lot of luck involved … it could have gone either way.” Old Dominion can vouch for that, as it had to settle for third place – just one point short of Georgetown and nationals.

Georgetown kept up the successful theme of the weekend by sweeping first place at its home event, the Tom Curtis Regatta. Although only six races were completed on the weekend due to low winds, the Hoyas made the most of it. Georgetown’s combined score of 23 was 10 points ahead of second-place Navy.

In the A division, sophomore skipper Blaire Herron and junior crew Emily Sigular finished with 11 points, while the senior pair of skipper Jackie Schmitz and crew Megan Melican had 12.

Callahan said that he was excited for the victory, since the Hoyas had won the regatta for eight years in a row until their streak was snapped last year. Eighteen schools participated in this year’s regatta.

Georgetown will compete in three events next week, including the Storm Trysail Regatta in City Island, N.Y., which is an offshore event, and the Navy Fall Women’s Regatta in Annapolis, Md. The highlight of the weekend will be at the MAISA Men’s Singlehanded Championship, where Campbell, who is coming off the sloops competition, will attempt to win the division title for the third time.