The last two weeks have been full of racing for the Tufts sailing team. Last week, the team participated in the Atlantic Coast Championships in New York and two weeks ago, the Jumbos sent two of their top skippers to Nationals in Seattle, Wash. Although Tufts could not achieve a victory in either championship race, the team did well across the board.
The Jumbos participated in three major races at the Atlantic Coast championships: the co-ed race, the women's race and the freshman race. With the co-ed and women's race, the team made a strong run for first place, yet trailed off at the end of both regattas to fall into fifth place and fourth place respectively.
"We were holding onto second place and knocking on the door for first going into the end of each race, but then fell off," coach Ken Legler said.
The squad had hoped to sail better in both races, yet they put in a solid performance, which should help solidify Tufts place in the national rankings.
"We were consistent and were certainly players in both the co-ed and the women's races," Legler commented.
Legler felt that the weather in New York was a significant factor in holding his team back. With strong winds and large waves on the river, his team and other New England teams were racing in unfamiliar conditions. The New England teams usually sail on closed off waters with smaller waves and lighter winds, as opposed to the more open waters of the mid-Atlantic.
"The weather certainly favored the mid-Atlantic teams over the New England teams," he said.
While Legler seemed pleased with the performance of his team at the end of the season, his sailors were a little more disappointed that they never reached their full potential.
The women's team had just begun emerging from a mid-season slump and hoped that the Atlantic Coast Championships would allow it to regain the top spot in the national rankings. After holding on for much of the race, the Jumbo women had to settle for fourth place in the end.
"We were going into it with the goal of winning and were a little disappointed with how we did," senior Jenn Provan said. "However, we learned a lot of important things which will help us next season to win the Nationals."
While the co-ed and the women's teams lost strength at the end of their races, the freshman racing team had the opposite experience in its first major championship race. The team consisted of Garin Pace, Katie Shuman, A.J. Crane, Paul Steinborn and Liz Bancroft. Despite the stiff winds and the strong competition the team rallied in the end to move out of ninth place and finish in sixth place.
"Once the weather calmed down we were able to catch up a little bit from what we had lost on
Saturday and bump up from ninth to a close sixth once the regatta was over," Crane said.
A week earlier, junior Kimball Hall and Provan were in Seattle, representing their teammates as they participated in the men's and women's single hand elimination races. The juniors raced in one-person laser boats, and while both races consisted of the nation's top 16 racers in each event, Hall took twelfth and Provan took eighth place.
Although Legler had originally hoped to place both or at least one of his sailors in the top five, he was pleased with the overall result.
"They did okay. They didn't do great but there was some pretty good competition out there," he said.
The sailors were less pleased with the outcome, knowing that their true strengths did not show in their regattas.
"We were both hoping to do a lot better and were disappointed with our results," Provan said.
While the Jumbos did not fare well at Nationals, they still held high spots in the national rankings afterwards. The most recent rankings from last week show the Jumbos in third place as a co-ed team and fourth place as a women's team.
For now, the season for the Jumbos' sailing team is essentially over. The only remaining regatta on the schedule is the Goodwill Regatta, which is promotional and has no effect on the standings.
"We're all going to take a break this winter and get fired up for next season," Provan said. "Our team has the potential to be number one in both co-ed and women's divisions. Everyone is extremely motivated to reach this goal and I think that we'll see success."
"We're not the best team in the country," Legler said, "but we're certainly close to it."
