Sometimes you can win with a second-place performance.
Georgetown placed second at the MAISA women’s qualifying race in Ithaca, N.Y. this weekend, earning a spot in May’s ICSA national championship races. While the women’s team had the biggest race of the weekend, coed sailors hit the water in less competitive regattas with their eyes on next week’s national- qualifying race.
The qualifying race was dominated by St. Mary’s, which has had a firm grip on MAISA all season. The Seahawks finished with 55 points to Georgetown’s 93.
“St. Mary’s is the No.1 women’s sailing team in the country right now,” Georgetown Head Coach Mike Callahan said. “We knew we would qualify, so it was very important to see how we did against the top teams.”
Finishing ahead of Navy was impressive, Callahan said, because the Navy pair has been competing together for three years and is one of the top teams in the nation. The Midshipmen finished third.
While the final scores in the A division were close, not all of the races were.
“With only nine teams competing, it’s tough to really fall behind or get ahead of anybody,” Callahan said. “We could beat St. Mary’s by a lot time-wise, but they’d still finish in second. There was really a lack of top teams to compete.”
After a rough regatta last week with bad weather and inconsistent racing, junior Blaire Herron surged back, winning, along with senior teammate Emily Siguler, the A division over St, ary’s by a single point, 26-27.
Though the St. Mary’s A boat has been tops in the nation all year, Herron and Siguler are now racing up to the level of their competition.
“Blaire and Emily have gotten really hot after the last regatta,” Callahan said.
“We’ve had a lot of different conditions, very windy, cold,” Herron said. “We have been staying positive and making sure we make the best of every race.”
The team cannot place without success in both the A and B divisions and, according to Callahan, the B boat is not where it needs to be. While St. Mary’s and Navy have B boats that could just as well race in the A division, Georgetown’s second boat has lagged.
“If we could improve in B division we could win a national championship this year,” Callahan said.
Herron said that the Hoyas’ strong showing against teams to which they lost earlier in the year could give them a boost heading into the national races.
“It’s a confidence boost,” Herron said. “We can really do well at nationals, but we have a lot of practice and conditioning to do. We have time.”
Georgetown’s B division was split between the team of sophomore Emily Babbitt and senior Jessica Stewart and the duo of junior Jamie Loeks and senior Theresa Salerno. In the B races, Georgetown finished fourth with 67 points.
In the fall, Georgetown placed first in the women’s qualifying event, but this time could not repeat, with St. ary’s showing itself to be the class of MAISA.
Georgetown played host to the coed MAISA Open this weekend, finishing sixth of 16 participants with MAISA foe St. Mary’s taking the overall crown.
The race was formerly known as the freshman championships but is now open to competitors of all years. Most teams, however, chose to send only freshmen and few sophomores.
Freshmen Hugh McBride and Alexandra Taylor finished fifth among A boats while freshman Caila Johnson and sophomore Madeleine aguire landed seventh in the B division. Not as competitive as some races, the regatta was, according to Callahan, a way for freshmen to see how much they’ve progressed this season.
At the Thompson Trophy Regatta in New London, Conn., Georgetown did not send its top sailors, instead sending its top freshman skipper, Marco Texidor. With the coed national qualifying regatta next week, Georgetown’s usual A and B teams stayed home to finish homework.
“We gave our top kids the weekend off just because our best qualifier is next weekend,” Callahand said. “We wanted to let them finish up their thesis or whatever so next week it’s all about sailing.”
The America Trophy regatta will be held Saturday and Sunday at the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y.
