Sperry Women's College Sailing National Championship - Final day

by Jennifer Mitchell on 29 May 2015 Today was the last day of racing for the Sperry Women’s National Championship on Narragansett Bay co-hosted by Brown University, Salve Regina University and the New York Yacht Club. Eighteen women’s collegiate teams raced for the Gerald C. Miller Trophy and Yale University came away with the win.

Racing began at 9:30 a.m. in temperatures right around 70 degrees under cloudy skies. Although the winds were the lightest of the event this morning, they did not disappoint for the last day of racing. The southwest breeze in the morning was around 10 knots and built to around 15+ knots by the end of the day. The course was affected by some thunderstorms near the area, but the course was pretty even for the day until the last sets when the left side became favored.

Today the divisions swapped boats again, A-division sailed in FJs and B-division sailed in Z420s. The sailors completed nine races in both divisions on windward leeward courses with three orfour legs for a total of 18 races in each division for the event. The race committee was able to meet the racing deadline and completed the races just before 4:30 p.m.

Going into today’s competition Boston College, Brown University and Yale University were each only separated by one point. Dartmouth College, the defending champion trailed the top three by nine points.

The intense competition and solid conditions made for exciting racing today. Boston College led the racing until race 14 when Yale took over the lead. The two teams were always within striking distance of each other, but Yale kept the lead for the final four races of the day. Right behind Boston College was Brown University and Dartmouth College, who were never far from finishing in the top three.

The home and co-host team, Brown University took third place winning the Ann Campbell Trophy. The Brown women aimed to sail clean and execute today.

“We are psyched to be on the podium,” says John Mollicone, head coach for Brown. “We will be kicking ourselves because we had the opportunity to win the regatta, but we are happy to be third,” Mollicone says.

Despite being one of the home teams, Mollicone explains, “The last few days we felt we had some home court advantage, but with the weather and conditions today, we did not feel that.” Although Brown finished in third place overall, they did win B-division.

“We had two senior skippers win B-division and we are really happy for them,” says Mollicone.

Sailing for Brown was Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick '17 with Lydia Whiteford '15 and Alexandra Swanson '16 in A-division and Johanna Kincaid '15 with Jessica O'Dell '16 and Kelly McGlynn '15 with Ragna Eide '16 in B-division.

Boston College finished in second place winning the New England Women’s Trophy. Once Yale took the lead, Boston College fought hard to gain it back, but was not able to catch them.

“It was a great day,” says Greg Wilkinson, head coach for Boston College. “We wish we could have executed better, but I think the girls realize the strength of the competition that they were up against,” Wilkinson says. In between races, Wilkinson says, “I tried to just remind the girls this is a sailboat race and there is nothing special you need to do – just do what you practiced.”

“From our team, our hats off to Yale, we gave them everything we had,” says Wilkinson.

Sailing for Boston College was Erika Reineke '16 with Elizabeth Barnard ’15, Katja Sertl ’16 and Emily Schalka '15 in A-division and Allyson Donahue '17 with Emily Schalka '15 and Madeleine Loosbrock '17 in B-division.

The Sperry Women’s National Champions and winners of the Gerald C. Miller Trophy is Yale University. After finishing in third place yesterday, the women sailed smart and fought back to take the win today.

“Morgan [Kiss] had a string of seven top three finishes in a row and that made a big difference for us today,” says Bill Healy, assistant coach for Yale, of the A-division boat. “Morgan was in her own zone today and she and Emily did great,” Healy says.

Morgan Kiss is a senior this year and she felt especially proud of their win. “I think that it was obviously really good competition and that it was really tough sailing against all of the girls and it was a really tight fleet,” says Morgan Kiss. “I think that what we did was just focus on one race at a time and try our hardest in each one and I definitely owe it to my crew today, Emily Johnson, who kept us in the game even when we had our doubts,” Kiss says.

Another turning point for Yale today was when they switched out their B-division crew for the last set of the day to try and get more weight in the boat. “We put Claire [Huebner] in with Casey [Klingler] so that we could hang with Boston College and that saved us,” says Healy.

Sailing for Yale was Morgan Kiss '15 with Emily Johnson ’16 and Claire Huebner ’18 in A-division and Casey Klingler ‘18 with Katherine Gaumond '15 and Claire Huebner ’18 in B-division.

After racing, awards were presented at the Sail Newport Sailing Center hosted by Salve Regina University, for the top teams and also for the first place finishers in each division. Morgan Kiss '15 with Emily Johnson ’16 and Claire Huebner ’18 from Yale won the Madeleine Trophy, awarded to the low-point A- division team. They finished with 96 points total, 15 points ahead of the second place pairing from Boston College.

Johanna Kincaid '15 and Kelly McGlynn '15 with Jessica O'Dell '16 and Ragna Eide '16 won the Judy Lawson Trophy, awarded to the low-point B-division team. They also finished with 96 points total and were four points ahead of the second place pairing from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

Women’s Final Overall Results:

1. Yale University, 223
2. Boston College, 228
3. Brown University, 234
4. Dartmouth College, 237
5. College of Charleston, 292
6. Georgetown University, 300
7. University of Vermont, 308
8. University of Rhode Island, 310
9. Stanford University, 334
10. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 341
11. U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 348
12. Cornell University, 398
13. George Washington University, 402
14. Old Dominion University, 412
15. Eckerd College, 426
16. U.S. Naval Academy, 436
17. Bowdoin College, 444
18. University of South Florida, 487