The sailing team had one main objective coming into this weekend: earn a berth in the Atlantic Coast Championships (ACC). Through some of the best sailing the team has exhibited all season, the Jumbos accomplished just that.
At the Schell Trophy regatta on the Charles River, hosted by MIT, the Jumbos finished fourth overall out of a field of 18 of the nation's top programs. The two Tufts boats finished with a combined score of 249 in 36 total races.
In the A division, junior Tomas Hornos and senior tri-captain Lara Hwa sailed the most dominating regatta in the multi-year history of the duo on the water. Scoring 103 points, Hornos and Hwa won the A division and essentially locked up the team's berth in the ACCs.
"We did well," Hornos said. "We didn't lose sight of our main objective, which was qualifying for ACCs. We wanted to make sure we had that at the end of the weekend. We didn't really look at how well we were going to do [in the regatta]. We just focused on qualifying. It was the best result that I've gotten in college sailing so far in three years."
The extra focus seemed to work well for the B-division boat as well, which was sailed by senior tri-captain Baker Potts and senior Christina Kelly. Potts and Kelly came in at the end of the two-day regatta with 146 points, good for eighth place in the division and enough to put the Jumbos into collegiate sailing's playoffs.
"Baker had moments of brilliance," Hornos said. "He had really good races. He also had some pretty crappy ones, but that was just a couple of races ... it wasn't much."
Although the outcome of the regatta was just what the Jumbos were looking for, senior Dan Hurwit and junior Nate Rosenberg missed out on competing during the weekend. As the heavy-air crew in a regatta in which the wind never built to more than 12 knots or so, Hurwit and Rosenberg spent the weekend cheering on their teammates from the dock.
"[They] supported Baker and me while we were racing," Hornos said. "They didn't get a chance to sail, but they were a big part of us doing well."
In a similar fashion, freshman Adam Weisman, another member of the heavyweight crew, was left on the docks to provide coaching tips and snacks to his classmates at the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association's Freshman Championships, held at Massachusetts Maritime Academy.
The Jumbos sailed to a fourth-place finish out of 15 teams in the championship, bringing in 142 points in 24 races combined between the A and B divisions. The freshmen duo of Massimo Soriano and Emily Shaw hauled in 87 points in the A division, leaving them in ninth in the division. The B-division boat, sailed by first-years Nicolas Russo-Larsson and Jory Hanselman, garnered only 55 points, leaving it in third position in the division.
"This weekend had a pretty strong breeze from the north, northwest at 5-18 knots," Weisman said. "The venue ensured that the winds were going to be shifty, but a few races in, our team got the hang of the race course and started doing really well.
"We were up against some pretty stiff competition, with very competitive A and B divisions," he continued. "On Sunday, the wind picked up significantly and remained steady throughout the day. We finished day one in fourth and ended up fourth overall at the end of Sunday."
The strong performance by the freshmen bodes well for the Jumbos in the future. Finding a comfort zone in high-pressure situations early in their sailing careers can pay huge dividends for these young sailors in the future, and that's certainly what the Jumbos are doing.
"Our freshman team is unbelievably strong," Weisman said. "We have the capacity to put together two competitive teams of three boats each. The versatile skipper-crew combinations allow us to expand our arsenal to unthinkable proportions, the likes of which have never been seen since the epic days of the legendary [current coach] Ken Legler."
In preparing for the ACCs, which will take place the weekend of Nov. 15 at Hobart and William Smith, the Jumbos are starting to use flashlights on the boats to light up the sails when it gets dark out in order to continue to steer the fastest course possible. However, despite this complication, the Jumbos remain confident of their chances to do well at ACCs.
"We're feeling pretty strong," Hornos said. "I haven't finished worse than fifth at any top regatta so far. We're looking good ... we're going to do well."
