By Maegan White
Elm Staff Writer
Five Washington College Sailors traveled to Stone Brook, NY to compete on Saturday April 15. The Shore Sailors finished fourth overall earning them a spot in their conference championship race for the American Trophy.
At sailing regattas, each pair competes in a different division to earn points. Over the weekend, each boat will compete in eight races against their division. The boat that takes first earns one point, second earns two, and so on. The team with the lowest score wins. At the end, the different divisions are combined to rank the teams overall.
For the Shore sailors, Senior Stewart Gurnell skippered for Division A. Freshman Rachel Morgen and Junior Kennedy Jones split the races as crew for division A. Joseph Bonacci skippered, and Emma Macturk crewed for the division B team.
The division A boat finished their eight races with 23 points, one point behind the Princeton University who took first. Drexel University and WC tied with points, but Drexel officially finished second and WC finished third via a tiebreaker. The WC division A boat took first place in the first and eighth race and placed second in the fourth race.
The division B team finished with 49 points in sixth place. Macturk and Bonacci top finish was third in the eighth race. WC and Virginia Tech tied in fifth, but Virgina won the tiebreaker resulting in the WC team finishing sixth.
Jones shared that despite some poor sailing conditions and setbacks, they completed well. “It was cool to sail at a new venue, but also challenging due to light winds, fog, and rain at times. There was a set on Saturday where we were on the water for an hour before starting the next race. It ended up taking almost three hours to complete 3 races when I should have only taken about an hour.”
Overall, the Shore Sailors finished fourth behind Princeton, Drexel, and Christopher Newport qualifying them for the America’s Trophy regatta which is their conference championships.
According to Jones, the America’s Trophy regatta is the next step before qualifying for nationals. “National’s selection process is based on a competitive strength record and a selection committee. Winning your conference gets a bid to nationals and the others are chosen based on the committee,” Jones said.
While it is unlikely the Shore Sailors will win the America’s Trophy, they do have a chance of earning a bid from the committee. Over the past three years, the Shore Sailors have finished thirteenth, leaving them just outside of qualification.
Bonacci said, “I think this year the team is performing better than last year. Our depth of skill is better than last year, and we are in a great position going into conference champs. Hopefully, we’ll perform well enough at conference champs to qualify for nationals.”
The America’s Trophy regatta will take place April 29 and 30 at Old Dominion College in Virginia. The team will also send two teams each to compete in the Boston Dinghy Cup and the Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association Women’s regatta which are both grade one competitions (the highest level of collegiate racing).
Photo courtesy of WC Athletics
Photo Caption: Senior Emma Macturk sailing with sophomore Joey Bonacci.