APS Team Race National Championship

APS TEAM RACE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP DAY ONE

St. Mary’s City, Md. (May 31, 2014) ??" Today was the first day of racing for the APS Team Race National Championship on the St. Mary’s River at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Sixteen collegiate teams from across the nation qualified to compete in this event for the national title and the Walter C. Wood Trophy, awarded to the winning team.

After a Competitor’s Briefing, racing got underway around 9:30 a.m. The sailors had great conditions, with sunny skies and temperatures in the low to mid 70s. Winds were around 7-11 knots from a northerly direction. They were mostly steady with shifts at times. Towards the end of the day the winds lightened up to around 5-8 knots and continued to come from a northerly direction.

The format for this event now includes two more teams than previous years in the first round robin of racing. Sixteen teams all race each other once in the first round. This round determines places 9-14. The top eight teams then advance to a single round robin, which determines places 5-8. The top four remaining teams advance to a “final four” another single round to determine places 1-4.

With the great conditions today, the competitors sailed a full day until about 6 p.m., with a few short breaks to re-group, hydrate and eat. The race officials and umpires kept the races rolling. They include: principal race officer Chris Gaffney and chief umpire Rob Overton supported by Christine Accettella, Charlie Arms, Don Becker, Jeff Borland, Sandy Grosvenor, Peter Johns, Katie Maxim, Bryan McDonald, Dillion Paiva, Chris Petracco, John Pratt, Richard Sullivan, Steven Wolff and members of the St. Mary’s Sailing Team.

The competitors made it through a total of 102 races today. There are 18 more total races to go in the first round. The competitors sailed on a digital N course, which has a windward mark, a windward offset mark and then down to a leeward mark with another leeward offset and finish upwind. The N course allows for long upwind and downwind legs ??" prime for team racing. The sailors are racing in both FJs and Z420s.

There was great competition among the teams today. Everyone experienced wins and losses on the racecourse. With a few more races to, some of the top teams still have not faced each other, so there is room for schools to move up or down in the standings. Most notable is that the top two teams after today’s racing, Yale University and St. Mary’s College of Maryland, have not matched up.

Yale only has one loss on their record so far, against Georgetown University. “We wish we could have that one back,” says Bill Healy, assistant coach at Yale, “But we got over it quickly and moved on.”

Yale is the defending champion of this event, but Healy says, “We are taking it one race at a time.” Healy mentions some great battles that their team experienced today on the water; one notable was with Tufts University.

“A freshman on our team, Ian Barrows, jammed up the boats at the bottom mark and converted a 1,5,6 to a winning 1,2 combination,” he says. Yale finished all but two races today with a winning 1,2 combination, which shows their strength in the racing so far.

Sailing for Yale is: Ian Barrows '17, Graham Landy '15, Christopher Segerblom '14, Amanda Salvesen '14, Marlena Fauer '14, Eugenia Custo Greig '14, Charlotte Belling '16 and Katherine Gaumond '15.

Sitting in second place after today is home team and host school St. Mary’s. St. Mary’s has two losses to Stanford University and Tufts University. Adam Werblow, head coach at St. Mary’s names these as two of three notable battles for the team today. The third being with Boston College.

“We are just trying to collect some W’s [wins],” says Werblow of the team’s racing strategy. “First and foremost we want to run a high quality championship and make sure the infrastructure for racing is great,” he adds. St. Mary’s still has two tough races left in the round tomorrow against Yale and the U.S. Naval Academy who is currently in third place.

Sailing for St. Mary’s is: Fletcher Sims '14, Joshua Greenslade '14, John Wallace '14, Kelley Merryman '14, Nicole DeAngeli '14 and Allison Shane '15.

The first warning for racing tomorrow is at 9:20 a.m. The top nine teams have naturally defined themselves in the racing so far, but they are all within a race or two of each other.

APS TEAM RACE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP DAY TWO

St. Mary’s City, Md. (June 1, 2014) ??" Racing continued today in the APS Team Race National Championship on the St. Mary’s River at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. The top sixteen collegiate team racing teams in the nation are vying for the national title and the Walter C. Wood Trophy.

The sailors went out to race at 9:30 a.m. in light winds about 5-8 knots from the northeast and the race officials were able to get a few races off, but the wind slowly died and the competitors came into shore to wait for more wind to fill in. After a few hour delay on shore, a southerly sea breeze around 5-10 knots, filled in and racing continued. Teams sailed under sunny skies and temperatures were in the 70s.

The first round with all 16 teams was completed today. There were 18 races left in the round and places 9-16 was determined as well as the top eight teams, who advanced to the next round of racing. Sailors competed in both FJs and Z420s on a digital N course in the first round, but the rest of the rounds will be sailed in only FJs. The scores from each round carry over to the next.

Yale University and St. Mary’s College of Maryland led after racing yesterday and they advanced into the top eight on top as well. Yale made it through with only one loss and St. Mary’s made it through with three losses. The U.S. Naval Academy also moved through in the same spot, third place, beating Roger Williams University and Boston College in a score tiebreaker.

Other movement in the top eight came from Stanford University who was in ninth yesterday, but won their two races in the first round today and moved up to eighth place.

YALE UNIVERSITY WINS APS TEAM RACE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

St. Mary’s City, Md. (June 2, 2014) ??" Today was the third and final day of the APS Team Race National Championship on the St. Mary’s River at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. This event is the second of three collegiate sailing national championships co-hosted by the U.S. Naval Academy and St. Mary’s College of Maryland this spring. After three days of racing Yale University is the national champion and winner of the Walter C. Wood Trophy.

The day began with completing the top eight round robin. Racing got underway around 9:30 a.m. Competitors sailed in FJs on digital N courses. The remaining ten races were completed in the top eight round today. The morning conditions were sunny, temperatures in the 70s and winds from a southerly direction at around 5-10 knots.

Principal race officer, Chris Gaffney, was methodical making sure to run the races efficiently and taking the time to make sure the course was square so that the sailing was fair. He and the race officials ran 154 total races in this event.

Today the teams were fighting to advance into the final four round. The competition was tough and the sailors were working hard on the racecourse. Yale made it through the top eight round undefeated, with only one loss on their record from the very first round robin of the regatta.

Before Yale sailed their last race in this round they had clinched the regatta win. Once they had their 20th win in the event, they mathematically won, even before the final four began. This is the first time this has happened in at least eight years and it may even be the first time a team has clinched a national win so early on in the regatta. Still, the racing continued and after some real battles on the racecourse, the final four were decided.

“Since we were just taking it race by race it just kind of happened [clinching the regatta],” says Bill Healy, assistant coach for Yale University. “The team is totally psyched and everybody is happy ??" the regatta was so awesome, it was perfect,” Healy says of their win.

“I am really happy for the team. They worked so hard for it all spring and Zeke Horowitz, who helped us a lot, was a key contributor to this win,” Healy explains. Healy also gave a shout out to the hard work of St. Mary’s Sailing head coach Adam Werblow and Chris Gaffney and his crew, “They were so incredible and efficient and patient when they needed to be. It was the smoothest team race event I have ever been to,” he says.

This is Yale University’s second APS Team Race National Championship title and Walter C. Wood Trophy win, having just won the event last year.

The winning team members are: Ian Barrows ’17, Christopher Segerblom '14, Graham Landy '15, Max Nickbarg '14, Amanda Salvesen '14, Eugenia Custo Greig ’14, Marlena Fauer '14, Katherine Gaumond '15, Charlotte Belling '16 and Meredith Megarry '17.

By lunchtime the top eight racing was complete and after a short break the final four round began. Yale advanced into the round with Stanford University, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and Boston College all tied with a 15-7 record.

There were six races total in the final four. The temperature was up around 75 degrees and the winds were a steady southerly around 7-11 knots. St. Mary’s and Stanford came out of the gate strong and won their first races in the round. Stanford gave Yale their second loss of the regatta. This momentum carried them through until they had to face each other to determine who would take second place.

Stanford started the race winning and was ahead almost all of the way around the course, but St. Mary’s started to make gains on the Stanford sailors and eventually chipped away at them up the last beat of the race and crossed the finish line with a winning 2,3,4 combination. St. Mary’s continued to be undefeated in the final four.

This is the third year in a row that St. Mary’s has placed second at this championship.

“We had a really hard time starting today and had to play catch up in almost every race,” says Adam Werblow, head coach for St. Mary’s. “But the team was a team and the guys have been together now for a long time and really battled and it was fun to see,” he says.

“Bill [Healy] did a great job getting fired up and wanted to do their absolute best in the final four and without a question Yale was dominant and they should have won. Everybody else was really close and we were fortunate to come out in second place again,” Werblow says.

Sailing for St. Mary’s was: Fletcher Sims '14, Joshua Greenslade '14, John Wallace '14, Kelley Merryman '14, Nicole DeAngeli '14 and Allison Shane '15.

This is the first time since 1996 that Stanford has finished on the nationals’ podium.

“It means a lot to the West Coast, to our conference and especially to Stanford to get back on the nationals podium,” says John Vandemoer, head coach for Stanford. “I am proud of these guys for so many things,” Vandemoer says about his team and especially the seniors. “It’s incredible what the seniors have done both on the water and off the water to really lead and establish Stanford as a powerhouse in college sailing. I can’t say enough about their support and all of their work,” he continues.

“Big shout out to our two captains, Yuri and Hans, they have really lead this team all year. The team racing is tough, everyone is good and it takes strong leaders to make it happen,” Vandemoer says.

Sailing for Stanford was: Kevin Laube '14, Hans Henken '15, Kieran Chung '15, Mateo Vargas '14, Yuri Namikawa '14, Tally Buckstaff '14, Haley Kirk '15 and Mary Vangelos '17.