The St. Mary's College of Maryland sailing teams began their 2024-25 season this past weekend (Sept. 7-8) with five Top 10 finishes over three regattas hosted by the U.S. Naval Academy and Old Dominion University.
 
Senior captain Charlie Anderson (Annapolis, Md./Key) and sophomore skipper Mats Braaten (Toronto, Ontario/Humberside) both secured spots in the Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association (MAISA) Men's Singlehanded Conference Championships (Carl Van Duyne) with their top-nine placements at Laser South hosted by Navy. The MAISA Championships will be held at the Naval Academy on Sept. 28-29.
 
LASER SOUTH (USNA)
Anderson notched his career-best finish at the Laser South, coming in second with a score of 67. He finished nine points behind the top-finisher, Georgetown University's Peter Barnard '27. Anderson had 10 top-five finishes, including taking second in Race 12 and third in Races 7, 10, and 14. This weekend's second-place finish was a four-spot improvement from last year's sixth-place finish. As a first-year, Anderson came in eighth followed by a seventh-place finish as a sophomore.
 
Braaten also registered a four-spot improvement from last year (8th) with this weekend's fourth-place finish. He tallied 70 points to finish in a tie for third with Georgetown's Benjamin Smith '26 but Smith owned the head-to-head tiebreaker. Braaten recorded seven top-five finishes within the first eight races, including winning Races 3 and 7. He finished the weekend with nine top-five finishes, including five placements in the Top 3.
 
Sophomore skipper Nathan Jensen (Sudbury, Mass./Lincoln-Sudbury Regional) also competed at the Laser South, collecting a 14th-place finish with 178 points. Jensen's best finishes were a pair of ninth-place finishes in Races 6 and 12.
 
NAVY WOMEN'S
The Seahawks women's sailing team opened the 2024-25 campaign with a second-place finish in the six-team field. SMCM tallied 139 points over a combined 24 races (12 in each division), placing second to Georgetown University who notched a low of 94 points.
 
Sophomore skipper Lina Carper (Carlsbad, Calif./Coronado), along with crew Grace Phillips '27 (Stevensville, Md./Gunston) and Rachel O'Neill '24, M'25 (Gambrills, Md./South River), collected a second-place finish in Division B with 66 points. The trio collected eight top-five finishes. Carper and Phillips took second in Race 3B while Carper and O'Neill finished third in Races 6B and 9B.
 
Junior skipper Cho-Cho Williams (Norfolk, Va./Granby) and senior crew Brooke Bertrand (Costa Mesa, Calif./Orange Coast College) went fourth in Division A with 73 points. The duo registered five top-five finishes, including winning Race 3A and taking second in Race 7A.

RILEY CUP (ODU)
SMCM dealt with challenging conditions down in Norfolk with Seahawks 2 taking seventh (86 points) and Seahawks 1 placing eighth (93 points) in the 16-team field.
 
Sophomore skipper Landon Cormie (Vineyard Haven, Mass./Falmouth Academy) and junior captain Emily Shioutakon (Rockville, Md./Good Counsel) helped Seahawks 2 to a seventh-place finish as the duo finished sixth in Division A with a score of 37. Cormie and Shioutakon recorded five consecutive sixth-place finishes before coming in seventh in the final sixth race. In Division B, first-year skipper Scott Opert (Galesville, Md./Southern) and senior crew Lillian Newman (Annapolis, Md./Broadneck) took ninth with 49 points. The tandem garnered a second-place finish in Race 6B.
 
Junior skipper Raam Fox (Annapolis, Md./Severn) and first-year crew Jane Wright (Wilmington, N.C./John T. Hoggard) contributed to Seahawks 1 eighth-place finish with 53 points and a 10th-place finish in Division A. The duo's best finish was a sixth-place finish in Race 6A. Senior skipper Max Kleha (Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei) with crew Mary Govan '27 (Charlottesville, Va./Albemarle) and Indiana Theurer '25 (Virginia Beach, Va./Tidewater CC) claimed a sixth-place finish in Division B. Kleha and Theurer came in fourth in Race 4B while Kleha and Govan earned a fifth-place finish in Race 6B.
 
Up Next for the Seahawks

• Sept. 14-15 – Chesapeake Invitational – Annapolis, Md. (Navy) – 10 am
• Sept. 14-15 – Faye Bennet (MAISA Women's Singlehanded Conference Championship) – Annapolis, Md. (Navy) – 10 am

 
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