Gill Coed National Champ - Sailor of year and other honors announced

by Jennifer Mitchell on 7 Jun 2014 At an awards ceremony following racing for the Gill Coed National Championship at St. Mary’s College of Maryland the honors for the Marlow Ropes College Sailor of the Year, Robert H. Hobbs Sportsmanship Award and the Leonard M. Fowle Trophy for the Best Overall Team were presented. The names of the winners will be added to the ICSA Hall of Fame display located in the Robert Crown Center at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

The Everett B. Morris Trophy is awarded annually to the Marlow Ropes College Sailor of the Year for outstanding performance at the highest level of sailing in the collegiate year. The trophy is named in memory of a distinguished journalist who spent more than 30 years, as a yachting writer and editor. This year there were two finalists for the prestigious award: Nevin Snow (San Diego, Calif.), a sophomore at Georgetown University and Graham Landy (Norfolk, Va.), a junior at Yale University.

Snow placed second overall and third in A-division with his team at the 2014 Gill Coed National Championship. He also finished fifth with his team at the 2014 APS Team Race National Championship. He was named an All-American for the 2013 season, his freshman year at Georgetown. Snow has already had an impressive collegiate sailing career as a sophomore.

The winner, calculated by the numbers, who is also the A-division and overall winner of the 2014 Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship is Graham Landy. Landy won the 2014 APS Team Race National Championship with his team and has had a stellar spring season. Landy has also been named an All-American twice, in 2012 and 2013.

'This spring I have sailed better than I ever have in college,' says Landy. 'In the back of my mind I hoped that I might win this honor at some point in college, but it has not been my main focus, the Yale team comes first,' he explains.

Landy credits his head coach Zach Leonard and assistant coach Bill Healy as being great mentors for him in college sailing and helping him refine his approach to sailing. Landy grew up sailing in Norfolk, Va. at Norfolk Yacht and Country Club. He is studying History at Yale.

The winner of the Leonard M. Fowle Trophy for best overall collegiate team is Yale University for the second year in a row. The team with the most Fowle points, which are compiled results of the ICSA Women’s Singlehanded, Men’s Singlehanded, Match Racing, Coed Semi-Finals, Women’s, Team Racing, and Coed National Championships, determines the Fowle trophy. Yale had a successful competitive year including placing second at the 2014 Sperry Top-Sider Women’s National Championship, winning the 2014 APS Team Race National Championship, the 2014 Western Gill Coed Semi-Finals and the 2014 Gill Coed National Championship.

The Robert H. Hobbs Sportsmanship Award is awarded annually to the Sportsman of the Year. The trophy honors Robert Hobbs (MIT '64), past Executive Vice President of ICSA, past President of U.S. Sailing (1992-1994), and former chair of the U.S. Sailing Olympic Committee.

This year’s winner is Sam Madden (Milton, Mass.), a junior from Tufts University, who has shown outstanding sportsmanship during his collegiate sailing career.

'It’s an enormous honor and something I am very proud of,' Madden says. 'I am very excited to have received this,' he continues, 'It means so much that my peers and coaches have honored me this way.'

Madden grew up sailing in Milton, Mass. He is grateful for all that he has learned from his coach Ken Legler at Tufts and is looking forward to excelling and having another great year of college sailing. Madden is studying Political Science and Entrepreneurial Business at Tufts.

The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) is the governing authority for sailing competition at colleges and universities throughout the United States and in some parts of Canada. Click here to learn more.