There was more at stake than Snickers bars and clever costumes for the Georgetown sailing team this Halloween weekend.

The No. 5 Hoyas competed in the War Memorial Regatta – the coed conference championship event – at Hobart & William Smith College this weekend.

The Blue and Gray finished third overall, qualifying them for the Atlantic Coast championship and next year’s No. 2 schedule. Seniors Charlie Buckingham and Ashley Phillips, bolstered in races 3 and 4 by freshman Teddy Mark, sailed their way to a first-place finish in the A division.

“They raced exceptionally well,” Head Coach Mike Callahan said of his A division team, who blew away the competition with a score of 44.

The B division team, unfortunately, did not fare quite as well. Georgetown was represented Saturday by sophomores Chris Barnard and Hilary Kenyon, as well as senior Leah Volk, and on Sunday by senior Scott Furnary and junior Katherine Canty. The Hoyas finished sixth in the B division; the result, while respectable, led to the team’s overall third-place finish.

Georgetown finished behind No. 2 St. Mary’s and No. 11 Navy .

“It was a little bit of a disappointment that we couldn’t beat Navy, because I think we’re a better team than Navy,” Callahan said. “We could have finished second, and if we had sailed our best we could have won.”

The Hoyas also sent a younger delegation to the Top Nine Invitational Regatta at the US Merchant Marine Academy this weekend. The Blue and Gray came in just 10th, but the low finish was partially ameliorated by the fact that the eighth-through-11th-place teams were separated by less than 10 points.

Several sailors were able to gain some valuable experience in the regatta. In the A division, junior Andrew Mason and sophomore Annalee Leggett manned one boat to a 10th-place finish, while sophomores Daniel Eichler and Courtney Sherman sailed the other boat to a 14th-place finish. In the B division, freshmen Matt Gowell and Genevieve Burgoyne sailed into fifth while sophomores Michael Schalka and McKenzie Stough finished 10th. All of the Georgetown sailors went the distance at the regatta, competing in all 14 races.

“It was good practice for us, and we saw improvements in all the boats we sent up there,” Callahan said.

Next weekend will be just as important for two members of the Blue and Gray sailing team. Both Buckingham and Barnard have earned spots in the singlehanded national championship regatta, which will be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the University of South Florida.