ST. MARY'S CITY, Md. – The St. Mary's College of Maryland women's sailing team wrapped up their 2024-25 season Wednesday afternoon (May 21) with a 13th-place finish in the 18-team Eastern Semifinals of the 2025 Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Women's Fleet Race National Championship. St. Mary's College was not only one of the 36 teams competing in this week's national championship, but the Seahawks are serving as hosts.
 
The Seahawks, who started the Women's Fleet Race Nationals seeded 20th, tallied 200 points over two days of semifinal competition, claiming 13th place as Hobart and William Smith (HWS) Colleges owned the head-to-head tiebreaker to finish 12th with 200 points. SMCM missed making the cut for Thursday and Friday's finals by 45 points, placing four spots out of the top 9.
 
St. Mary's College's Division B boat placed 10th in its division with 91 points, breaking a three-way tie for 10th by virtue of its first-place finish in Race 2B. The Seahawks notched Top 10 finishes in four of the nine races.
 
Sophomore Lina Carper (Carlsbad, Calif./Coronado) skippered all nine races in Division B while sophomore Mary Govan (Charlottesville, Va./Albemarle) was the crew for the fifth (Race 1B) and first-place finishes. Senior crew Brooke Bertrand (Costa Mesa, Calif./Corona Del Mar) was part of the team's second-place finish in Race 6B as well as the seventh-place finish in Race 8B.
 
In Division A, St. Mary's College finished 14th with HWS holding the head-to-head tiebreaker. Both teams notched 109 points. Junior Cho-Cho Williams (Norfolk, Va./Granby) was skipper for all nine races in the division. Bertrand was the crew for Races 1A and 2A while senior Indiana Theurer (Virginia Beach, Va./Homeschool) joined Williams for the remaining seven races.
 
Williams and Theurer tallied three Top 10 finishes with fifth in Race 8A, sixth in Race 6A, and ninth in Race 5A.
 
SMCM's open sailing team will take to the water next week as St. Mary's College will compete and serve as the stage for the 2025 ICSA Open Fleet Race National Championship (May 27-30) for a second time, the first happening in 2014.
 
Next week's action will follow the same format as the women's national championship with 36 teams being downsized to 18 (Top 9 from Western Semifinals and Top 9 from Eastern Semifinals) following two days of semifinal competition. Those 18 squads will then compete for the coveted Henry A. Morss Memorial Trophy and earn the title of national champion. Harvard University will enter as the defending national champion and No. 1 seed.
 
The Seahawks are seeded 12th in next week's Open Fleet Race Nationals and have previously captured the Morss Memorial Trophy three times (2000, 2002, and 2009).
 
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