By Katie Weida
Sports Editor
WC Sailing finished third among 17 teams this weekend in New York at the Kings Point Dinghy Open, hosted by Merchant Marine.
Junior skipper Mike Whitford and senior crew Max Kurland won the A Division, resulting in their strong third place finish.
Ninth-ranked Hobart & William Smith won the regatta, followed by 10th-ranked Navy in second.
Despite the inconsistent wind on Saturday, Whitford and Kurland started strong in A Division with a win in the first race. In 13 of the 14 A Division races, they finished in the top five.
The only exception to this was race 6A, where they still placed a high seventh. The pair also won the final A Divisions race that was sailed on Saturday.
The first-place divisional finish was the third of Whitford’s career and the first for Kurland since transferring from the College of Charleston prior to his junior year.
In the B Division, junior skipper Mildred Conroy and freshman crew Sam Fitzgerald placed seventh.
Conroy and Fitzgerald won the fifth race and finished in the top six in half of the division’s races.
Next weekend, the WC sailing team will compete at the War Memorial, the MAISA Fall Co-Ed Dinghy Championships, at Hobart & William Smith, and at the Top Nine Invitational, hosted by Merchant Marine.