NORFOLK, Va. -- The Washington College sailing team placed 14th of 18 teams at the America Trophy, the MAISA Co-Ed Spring Dinghy Championship, this weekend at Old Dominion. Washington also won the three-team Salisbury Spring Open Gull Gust, hosted by Salisbury University, in Ocean Pines, Md., this weekend.
Washington's first trip to the Gull Gust resulted in a dominating victory as the team won 10 of the 12 A Division races and all 12 B Division races. UMBC was second, while host Salisbury was third. All races were finished on Saturday in a combined fleet with separate fleet scoring in a 10-12 knot breeze.
Sophomore skipper Hannah Schmidt (Trappe, Md./Easton) and freshman crew Maura Matthews (Pottstown, Pa./Owen J. Roberts) won 10 A Division races, finished second in one race, and placed third in another. Sophomore skipper Alex Smith (Wantagh, N.Y./General Douglas MacArthur) and freshman crew Allison Cochran (Mount Airy, Md./Urbana) swept all 12 B Division races.
The top nine finishing teams at the America Trophy advanced to the ICSA Co-Ed Dinghy National Championship. They were, in order, fourth-ranked Georgetown, 12th-ranked Old Dominion, 17th-ranked New York Maritime, sixth-ranked St. Mary's, tied for 10th-ranked Fordham, Merchant Marine, tied for 10th-ranked Navy, Penn, and 18th-ranked Hobart/William Smith. Six A Division races and five B Division races were completed on Saturday in a 10-14 knot northerly that decreased and then died later in the day. One B Division and two A Division races sailed on Sunday before the breeze died again. Due to an unequal amount of races in each division, those final two A Division races were thrown out and a total of six races in each division were counted.
Senior skipper Ryan Bailey (Toms River, N.J./Toms River South) and sophomore crew Karlyn Long (Louisville, Colo./Fairview) were 14th in A Division for Washington, while, junior skipper Eric Siegel (Kilmarnock, Va./Christchurch School) sailed with freshman crew Lindsey Arnstein (Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown) to placed 14th in B Division.
The Washington College sailing team will finish its season at the Jeremy A. Pinkerton Memorial in Annapolis next weekend.
