The Georgetown University Sailing Team began its 2013 fall season with three regattas over the weekend. At the MAISA Laser Eliminations at Navy, three Hoyas competed against 17 other sailors for a berth at the Conference Singlehanded Championships. Saturday brought light and shifty conditions on the Severn River. The wind would go from 0-10 mph and there were multiple lead changes so consistency was difficult to find. Nevin Snow did a phenomenal job of staying in the top 10 and was able to build a 14 point lead by the end of the day. Greg Martinez had some great races, but also fell victim to some unlucky shifts that put him in double digits a few times. By the end of the day, he was in 3rd overall. Sunday brought a nice afternoon seabreeze and a different kind of sailing with waves and limited shifts. Once again, Nevin was able to remain consistent even as the breeze built above his optimal conditions. Nevin ended up winning the regatta by 2 points. Greg showed outstanding boatspeed in the bigger breeze and ended up fourth overall. Freshman John Labossiere sailing in his first college regatta ended up 11th overall. Both Nevin and Greg move on to the Conference Singlehanded Championship Oct 12-13 in Kings Point, NY.

The women’s team started their season with a laser regatta at Navy as well. For the women, the top 8 from the Navy Laser Regatta, qualify for the Women’s Singlehanded Conference Championship September 26-27 at Navy. Much like the men’s regatta, consistency was hard to achieve during Saturday’s racing. For the Hoyas, sophomore Madeleine Higgins started out strong with two top five finishes in the 20 boat field. However, a little bad luck and some missed windshifts kept her out of the top 10 for the rest of the day. Senior Merritt Moran was able to avoid the really bad races and mixed in some great finishes to stay in the top 10. Sunday saw both girls sail much better and each was able to finish with multiple top 10 finishes, which was enough to get Merritt into 7th overall and Madeleine into 8th. Both girls will now compete at the Conference Championship. Senior Nancy Hagood was sailing quite well until a concussion knocked her out of racing Saturday afternoon.

The Hoyas also sent a coed squad to Old Dominion for the Riley Cup. The Riley Cup is a good, in-conference event, that typically sees a mix of older sailors and new recruits. The Hoyas sent two freshmen skippers and two upperclassmen crews to compete. In A Division, Freshman AJ Reiter and senior Eliana Michaels were very consistent over the course of the 10 race regatta. They ended up 3rd overall in A Division. In B Division, freshman Jack Gerli and sophomore Jack Welty finished 5th overall. The Hoyas ended up in 3rd place overall.

The Hoyas return to action this weekend with two events. The coed team will be competing at the Nevins Trophy at Kings Point. The women’s team will be competing at the Mrs. Hurst Regatta at Dartmouth.