Hoya Paranoia | The Hoya's Sports Blog

Ending the regular season ranked #1 in the country, the Georgetown coed sailing team lived up to their hype at the ICSA/Gill Coed Dinghy National Championships, which took place from June 6^th to the 8^th. The Hoyas wrapped up the top spot by the second-to-last race of the regatta, comfortably claiming the coveted Henry A. Morss Memorial Trophy and an all-important national title.

The event, hosted by the University of Texas at Austin, was one that the Blue and Gray led right from the beginning, with the team holding a 19-point lead after the opening day. That edge would only continue to grow on Day 2, after which 30 points would separate GU from Yale, their nearest competitors.

With the win, seniors and B-division sailors Evan Aras and Katherine Canty capped off their college careers in the best way possible, and Georgetown Head Coach Mike Callahan noted afterwards that he was especially proud of and happy for them.

The title certainly wouldn’t have been possible for the Hoyas, however, without the work of A-division racers Chris Barnard and Hilary Skenyon. Barnard, who was just named College Sailor of the Year (replicating a feat twice accomplished by former G’town standout Charlie Buckingham), helped anchor his team to its momentous victory. Teammate Sydney Bolger, who did not participate in the Coed Championships, was named Quantum Female Sailor of the Year only a few days ago as well.

The conditions were rough in Austin, with wind and driving rain causing a postponement of the final set of races on Friday. Georgetown, however, more than weathered the storm en route to yet another national championship.

The Georgetown women’s and coed sailing teams vaulted in the college sailing rankings to No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, according to the Sailing World Magazine’s college rankings on March 21st.

Sailing World’s college rankings are determined by a points system in an open coaches’ poll. The Georgetown women’s team leads the country with 223 points and 14 first-place votes. The second-ranked team is Yale, with 204 points and one first-place vote. The roles are reversed, however, in the coed rankings, with the Bulldogs leading with 291 points and 8 first-place votes and the Hoyas trailing with 273 points and 5 first-place votes.

The women’s team earned their spot atop the rankings with two consecutive winning weekends in the Navy Spring Women’s Interconference and the St. Mary’s Women’s Interconference.

In addition, senior Sydney Bolger, sophomore Nancy Hagood and junior Chris Barnard were named to the U.S. Sailing Development Team, an impressive honor for these three current sailors as well as recent graduate Charlie Buckingham (COL ’11). U.S. Sailing selects talented young sailors in preparation for potential Olympics berths in the near future. Georgetown sailing continues to send its athletes to the U.S. development team, which will feature the highest level of competition.

The coed team competed in the Admiral Moore Team Race and the Szambecki Team Race this past weekend. The Admiral Moore Team Race was hosted by SUNY Maritime College in Throggs Neck, N.Y. Weather conditions proved to be favorable as Georgetown hoped to continue its winning ways.

The Aaron Szambecki Team Race was hosted by No. 12 Old Dominion in Norfolk Virginia. Eight of the nation’s top sailing programs competed in a race of powerhouses. Among the featured were No. 2 Georgetown, No. 3 Roger Williams, No. 6 College of Charleston, No. 7 Stanford, No. 9 St. Mary’s College (Md.), No. 10 Hobart and William Smith, No. 12 Old Dominion, and No. 14 Navy.

Georgetown hopes to retain its elite status by continuing to outperform the nation’s best.

The Georgetown sailing team is living up to its usual high standards this season, with the women’s team currently ranked third nationally and the coed team tabbed at seventh in the country. The Hoyas will have a chance to further cement their standing over the weekend, when one boat will take to the seas for the Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association Championships.

Standout junior Chris Barnard, meanwhile, will head to Chicago to compete in the prestigious ICSA Singlehanded National Championships, with serious hardware on the line. Continue reading →

Coming off their midterm break, Georgetown sailing headed to Navy for the War Memorial Regatta this weekend. The team enjoyed a bounce-back performance in Annapolis, recovering from a sluggish showing before the break to win the War Memorial Regatta. Continue reading →

This weekend will be a busy one for the Georgetown sailing team with four regattas to attend: a single-man race in King’s Point, N.Y., a women’s event at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., the offshore regatta at Larchmont Yacht Club in New York, and the Tom Curtis here in the waters of the District of Columbia.

These regattas will match the Hoyas against national powerhouses such as Boston College, Yale, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Harvard, Dartmouth, Stanford, the Merchant Marine Academy and the Naval Academy. However, Head Coach Mike Callahan’ squad is looking to live up to its reputation this weekend.

“If we go to five events, we expect to do well at all five,” senior captain Andrew Mason said.

The Hoyas’ combination of youth and experience has been a staple of the fall season thus far. Callahan has tried to spread out the competition to give everybody experience and see where the skippers need improvement. As a result, Georgetown has continually relied on all sorts of sailors so far this year, and this weekend will prove to be no different against the top-ranked teams in the nation.

“Our team has everyone from All-Americans to girls from Oklahoma who had never sailed before and were just looking to get involved in something,” senior women’s captain Rebecca Evans said. “Our Thursday race-day amongst our team is our hardest competition and the hardest regattas we have.”

Junior Chris Barnard and freshmen Alex Post will be in boat alone instead of the usual two-man system of sailing, trying to take one step closer to the ultimate goal of a national championship. While the events at the Naval Academy and Larchmont Yacht Club will no doubt be important in helping the team maintain early-season momentum, the Tom Curtis holds a little bit more weight simply due to its location.

“We want to do well in the Tom Curtis because it is here on our home waters, which should give us a little edge over our competition,” Mason said.

Confidence, talent, and good instruction are all going to be vital this weekend to the Hoyas, as this weekend’s regattas hold a good bit of significance.  The single-man event in King’s Point New, York, the home of the Merchant Marine Academy, is a qualifier for nationals.

“The goal is always to win any event we go to,” said senior captain Pete Johns.

Many college sailing teams have one or two top boats that are able to compete in every race, but Georgetown relies on a full roster of capable sailors.

“One thing that sets us apart from other teams is the team-wide philosophy that we have.  We strive to have those two or three boats that are really good just as much as we strive to have a complete team,” Johns said.

– Dillon Mullan