St. Mary's City, Md. – This past weekend, the performance of the nationally-ranked St. Mary's College of Maryland sailing team varied as the Seahawks competed at the U.S. Naval Academy, struggled with tricky wind conditions at Yale University, and dominated the second Central MAISA regatta hosted by Washington College.
The highlight of the team's weekend was their first-place finish at the Central MAISA qualifying regatta. While wind conditions were pretty good, Sunday's races finished early due to very heavy wind and exhausting conditions with only nine races being sailed in each division. Outstanding performances by both the A division and B division teams led them to capture their respective divisions. The A team was comprised of junior Randall Hause (Newport Beach, Calif.) and first-year Kaitlyn Noreen (Minneapolis, Minn.) while the B team included first-year Marissa Golison (Long Beach, Calif.) and sophomore Allison Shane (Duxbury, Mass.).
Saturday breezes at the Naval Academy were a little shifty, leveling out on Sunday to allow the sailors to complete 14 total races.
The A team of senior Joshua Greenslade (Smiths, Bermuda) and junior Nicole DeAngeli (Reno, Nev.) performed very well, finishing second at the Navy Fall Intersectional. Seniors Victor Diaz De Leon (Lecheria, Venezuela) and Katie Gluskin (Duxbury, Mass.) and junior Fletcher Sims (Annapolis, Md.) took seventh for the B team. In addition, junior John Wallace (St. Petersburg, Fla.) finished eighth for the C team while senior Mimi Roller (St. John, V.I.) ranked second in D division, helping the Seahawks to an overall fourth-place finish in the team standings.
Saturday's conditions in Connecticut were shifty and difficult to navigate and the following day the increasingly stronger winds caused huge waves and exhausting sailing conditions. St. Mary's A team finished 11 as seniors Kayla McComb (Newport Beach, Calif.) and Nina-Mercedes Rabin (Branford, Conn.) and first-year Mariah Leffingwell (Easton, Md.) struggled with the very difficult conditions. The B team of seniors Ainsley Thomson (Princeton, N.J.) and Allie Smith (Pembroke, Mass.) and sophomore Catherine Shanahan (Tierra Verde, Fla.) claimed sixth as St Mary's finished seventh overall.
St. Mary's will be back in action on October 20-21 at the Hoyt Trophy at Brown University; at the Stu Nelson at Connecticut College; and at the MAISA Match Race Championships and the Kings Point Dinghy Open which are both being hosted by the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Points.
