By Katie Weida
Sports Editor
This past weekend, 19th-ranked Washington College sailing team finished second among the 18 teams that gathered for the Central Fall #1, hosted by Ocean County College, beating 11th-ranked Navy. Pennsylvania won the regatta.
Saturday’s races were delayed for two hours until the weather conditions became sail-worthy. Nine races were sailed in each division on Saturday. The other five races were completed on Sunday after an hour of delay.
WC was third in the A Division and finished in the top five in 12 of the 14 A Division races. Junior skipper Mike Whitford and senior crew Caroline Hill sailed the first nine as well as the final A Division races. Hill sailed with freshman skipper Sam Fitzgerald in the tenth through 13th races.
WC brought home a third place finish in the B Division as well. Junior skipper Mildred Conroy and sophomore crew Matt Lawler won the 13th B Division race and finished in the top six in twelve of the 14 races.
The finish qualified WC for the War Memorial, the MAISA Fall Co-Ed Championships, to be held at the end of next month. This weekend, the sailors will compete at the St. Mary’s Intersectional at St. Mary’s College.
Whitford is pleased with the results of this weekend and looks forward to the challenge next month.
“The ultimate goal for the fall season is to have a strong finish at the Atlantic Coast Championships. Qualifying for the War Memorial regatta gets the team one step closer. On top of having a strong finish at Ocean County, we were able to sail one of our freshmen (Sam Fitzgerald); developing the new sailors is also a priority, and he did very well.”