It was a busy weekend of varying results for the Jumbo sailing team. The team sailed in three regattas, with results ranging from top five to last five.
The Navy Fall Intersectionals were held over the weekend at the U.S. Naval Academy. The regatta consisted of four divisions, an A and a B division, along with C and D divisions for single-handed sailing.
Tufts took home fifth place out of the 20 teams present, losing to the dominant Kings Point, an experienced "heavy air team", as well as Yale, Hobart Williams-Smith and USC.
Junior Dave Siegal and sophomore Anna Martin placed eighth in the A division.
"It was a struggle for everyone [because] we are not a heavy air team," Martin said, referring to the day's heavy wind.
Junior Jeff Cruise and freshman Chryssa Rask took fourth in the B division, while sophomores Stephen Cox and Duncan Kopp rotated in the boats in a round robin style.
Heavier crews were needed due to the heavy winds, which is why the crews of Rask and Martin didn't sail as much.
In the single-handed divisions, junior Zander Kirkland placed fourth in the C division, while junior Brendan Shattuck finished in seventh place.
"A lot of the events differed," Shattuck said. "That seemed to be the theme of the weekend." The mistakes that were made were few but serious, according to Shattuck.
At the NESCAC Invite, held at Bowdoin College, the Jumbo sailors finished in fourth place out of five teams. Due to Bowdoin's location, the regatta featured a relatively small field of competitors.
The team lost to both Bowdoin's I and II teams, as well as to Bates.
Seniors Kara Kelly and Sarah Affel sailed together to a third place finish in the A division. Sophomores Jen Giroux and MacKenzie Kigin finished fourth in the B division.
Kirgin said that although they were sailing in Larks, the same model of boat Tufts trains in, these particular boats had a much different design making the weekend more difficult.
Given that both the A and B divisions were relatively light boats, each was difficult to control in the strong winds. Both divisions sailed eight races each.
Heavy winds and vicious waves made sailing quite a feat for the female Jumbos at the Yale Women's Intersectionals this weekend.
Yale, the winners of the Intersectionals, had the home advantage, and most teams - including Tufts - weren't very experienced on the open water.
Tufts scored 90 points total, placing them 14th out of the 19 teams, below the usual Tufts standards.
Senior Lindsay Shanholt and freshman Chloe Starr racked up 54 points for the A division, while freshmen Katie Sorck and Lyndsey Gibbons-Neff scored 36 points in a 10th place finish in the B division.
The winds were so strong that the teams were only able to get in four races on Saturday before the race was called off.
The following day didn't prove to be much better, with only the A division able to get out on the water.
The increasing winds kept the B division from sailing, which resulted in the A division races not counting. For some freshmen, it was the first time sailing in such conditions.
"The waves were so big at the starting line," Gibbons-Neff said. "We could only see the mark if we were on top of a wave and the mark was on top too."
This weekend, the team will participate in several regattas. The highlight will come when Kirkland travels out to Minnesota for the ICSA Single-handed Championships.<$>
