Sperry College Sailing Women's Nationals

The Sperry Women’s National Championship continued today on North San Diego Bay, co-hosted by San Diego Yacht Club and the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference. Eighteen collegiate teams advanced from the previous two days of competition in the semifinals to make it to the finals racing. The teams are vying for the national title and the Gerald C. Miller Trophy.

Racing got underway at 10:30 a.m. and wrapped up just before 5 p.m. today. The temperatures hovered in the mid-60s with clouds in the morning and some sun in the afternoon. The San Diego marine layer stuck around for a while this morning providing clouds and unstable conditions. The winds were from the south, light and shifty with flat water. In the afternoon when the clouds cleared the winds shifted west and increased to about 8-10 knots with choppier water.

Today A and B division sailed ten races in Club and Collegiate FJs on windward leeward four times around courses. There are eight races left in each division to complete the regatta.

The name of the game today was to make as few mistakes as possible and play the shifts. In the afternoon the pin was favored on the starting line and getting to the left side of the course early on was also key.

The top three teams have some separation from the rest of the fleet on the scoreboard, but the rest of the fleet is very close.

“The level of competition has been raised today,” says John Mollicone, head coach for Brown University. “You paid for your mistakes today,” he says. “Our goals were to start well

Today was the last day of racing for the Sperry Women’s National Championship on North San Diego Bay co-hosted by San Diego Yacht Club and the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference. Eighteen women’s collegiate teams raced for the Gerald C. Miller Trophy and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy came away with the win.

Racing began close to 10:30 a.m. in a westerly breeze about 5-7 knots. The temperatures stayed in the mid 60s all day with cloudy skies in the morning and some sun in the afternoon. The winds stayed out of the west around 5-8 knots with choppy water.

The sailors completed eight races today in both divisions on windward leeward courses with four legs for a total of 18 races in each division for the event. The race committee was able to meet the racing deadline and completed the races around 3:20 p.m.

The judges for the event were John Chrisman, Sandy Grosvenor, Steve Stewart and Bill Campbell.

Going into today’s competition the U.S. Coast Guard Academy had a significant lead over the rest of the fleet, as did Brown University behind them in second place. Boston University was also solidly in third place.

The close competition continued all day with a bit of a battle for third place between the University of Rhode Island and Boston University. URI made a big come back in racing today having finished yesterday in seventh place, the sailors worked their way up to third place for a short time, but eventually fell back to fourth place.

Boston University took third place winning the Ann Campbell Trophy.

Sailing for BU was Hannah Polster '17 with Margaret Swanson '16 and Lexi Pline '19 in A-division and Lydia Grasberger '18 with Meredith Harrington '18 in B-division.

Brown University finished in second place winning the New England Women’s Trophy.

“We are excited,” says John Mollicone, head coach for Brown. “I think we exceeded people’s expectations because these were not really our conditions,” he says, “We like 420s and breeze, not usually light winds, chop and FJs.”

“We were able to close the gap a little bit between us and Coast Guard,” Mollicone says. “But it became pretty clear that no one was going to catch them and we were pretty comfortable in second place, so it took some of the pressure off of the racing today,” he says.

“The conditions for this event were the ones we struggled with the most this year, so I am really proud of the girls for sailing so well,” says Mollicone.

Sailing for Brown was Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick '17 with Courtney Bergh '16 in A-division and Lindsey Baab '18 with Haley Carter '17 in B-division.

The Sperry Women’s National Champions and winners of the Gerald C. Miller Trophy is the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Coast Guard took the lead at the start of the regatta and never gave it up. The women sailed smart and fast and it paid off for the whole event.

“Today we were confident and sharp,” says Brian Swingly, head coach for Coast Guard. “We didn’t ever relax and we continued to take the event race by race,” Swingly says. “Brown sailed really well today, so we were keeping our eye on them,” he says.

“We have never won Women’s Nationals,” says Swingly, “So this is a special moment for us.” “We have won regattas, but not a Nationals, we have been slowly building to this point and we feel we are here to stay,” says Swingly.

Sailing for Coast Guard is Nikole Barnes ’17 with Anna Morin ’19 in A-division and Dana Rohde ’18 with Hannah Herring ‘18 in B-division.

After racing, awards were presented at the San Diego Port Pier, for the top teams and also for the first place finishers in each division. Nikole Barnes ’17 and Anna Morin ’19 won the Madeleine Trophy, awarded to the low-point A- division team. They finished with 60 points total, an impressive 50 points ahead of the second place pairing from Dartmouth College.

“Most races we would round the first windward mark in seventh or eighth and we had to work really hard and plan the down winds carefully,” Barnes says of never letting up during the regatta. “We always followed our pre-race routine and it allowed us to figure out the racecourse before other teams,” Barnes says, “Having more information helped make me less nervous during the racing,” she says.

Lydia Grasberger '18 and Meredith Harrington '18 from Boston University won the Judy Lawson Trophy, awarded to the low-point B-division team. They finished with 94 points total and were four points ahead of the second place pairing from Brown University.

Women’s Final Overall Results

1. U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 204 2. Brown University, 244 3. Boston University, 282 4. University of Rhode Island, 296 5. Yale University, 303 6. Dartmouth College, 306 7. University of Vermont, 317 8. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 319 9. Stanford University, 346 10. George Washington University, 359 11. Bowdoin College, 367 12. Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 382 13. Boston College, 391 14. University of Wisconsin, 392 15. University of California Santa Barbara, 400 16. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 404 17. College of Charleston, 408 18. Georgetown University, 436

Racing will continue in the Spring Intercollegiate National Sailing Championships with the LaserPerformance Team Race National Championship, which will take place over the next three days on North San Diego Bay. An Opening Ceremony and Competitors Briefing will take place this evening at the San Diego Yacht Club and tomorrow morning sixteen teams will report for the start of racing at the B Street Pier.

The following chart shows the relative rank of the teams as of the race indicated. Note that the races are ordered by number, then division, which may not represent the order in which the races were actually sailed.

The first place team as of a given race will always be at the top of the chart. The spacing from one team to the next shows relative gains/losses made from one race to the next. You may hover over the data points to display the total score as of that race.