Week 8: October 27-28
Entering the final weekend of the season, the Huskies were ranked 15th for co-ed and 13th for women out of the 36 registered college sailing teams in New England. The top 18 co-ed teams and top 16 women's teams are invited to the NEISA fall championships, and the results factor into every competing team's final ranking. The Huskies' goal for the final regattas was to place higher than their current ranking, and therefore hopefully improve their ranking in the last week.
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Schell Trophy @ Dartmouth (New England Fall Co-ed Championship)
​Representing the Huskies at the Schell Trophy were skippers Kyle Riggs ('21), Caleb Niles ('22), and Santiago Hirschmann ('23) and crews Sarah Pierce ('22), Becker Ewing ('21), Emerson Campbell ('22), and Romain Astié. In under 40 degree temperatures all weekend, including hail for much of Saturday, the team battled the other top 17 teams in New England. The wind hardly broke 10 knots all competition, and massive, oscillating shifts made for tough conditions for everyone. Against such tough competition, any team that didn't play the shifts correctly lost the race, and it was often necessary to sail a longer course in order to stay in the limited available pressure. A division skipper Riggs split time with regular crew Ewing and lightweight sub Pierce. They shook off a slow start and worked their way back to a 13th place division finish, winning a tight 4 team pack that included Rhode Island, Mass Maritime, and rival Boston University, plus beating Salve Regina and Maine Maritime. In B division, Niles and Campbell switched with Hirschmann and Astié 4 different times, combining for a 15th place division finish by beating Maine Maritime and Mass Maritime, plus a Vermont team that had had a 13 point advantage over them coming into Day 2. Overall, the team finished 15th overall, ahead of Mass Maritime, Salve Regina, and Maine Maritime. The Huskies ran out of time with their Day 2 comeback against Vermont, resulting in the team finishing the season with a final ranking of 15th in the region.
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Urn Trophy @ Bowdoin (New England Fall Women's Championship)
​Representing the Huskies at the Urn Trophy were skippers Carolyn Corbet ('21) and Victoria Pajak ('22) and crews Kelley Phippen ('22), Morgan TerMaat ('23), and Coleen Ross ('20). The Urn featured much stronger winds than the Schell, although the weather was just as bad if not worse, with consistent snow, sleet, and/or rain all weekend. Head coach Jonathan Farrar was in attendance as the Huskies looked to make up a gap of just 13 thousandths of a ranking point against Vermont, and hopefully move up to at least 12th in New England to conclude the fall season. Corbet and Phippen sailed every race in A division, and after opening a solid gap ahead of Vermont's A division, the two boats ended up exactly tied through 6 races. The pair took the lead right back again in race 7 though, and never looked back, managing to hold off a late surge by Roger Williams by one point to finish 13th in the division, ahead of Salve Regina in addition to Roger Williams and Vermont. TerMaat started with B division skipper Pajak, before being subbed out for Day 2 by lightweight crew Ross. In the heavy breeze, Pajak and TerMaat worked their way into 10th place to finish Day 1, thanks to two top 5 finishes. On Sunday, however, Pajak and Ross were slow to adjust to the much lighter conditions, and Harvard, Bowdoin, and Vermont all caught up in just 2 races, which goes to show just how competitive the entire fleet was. The next race, the Huskies scored their third top 5 finish in the division, catching both Bowdoin and Vermont in one swoop. The pair held on for three more races, finishing ahead of Bowdoin by just 4 points at the end, but it was enough for a 10th place division finish. In addition to Bowdoin and Vermont, B division beat Coast Guard, Roger Williams, Salve Regina, and Connecticut College. This gave the Huskies an 11th place finish overall, enough to surpass Vermont and secure a final ranking of 12th. Even though the team beat Coast Guard as well, it was not enough to surmount the nearly 5 ranking point gap that the Bears had over the Huskies going into the final weekend.
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Nickerson Trophy @ Tufts
In addition to the championship regattas, Tufts also hosted the Nickerson Trophy, a regatta exclusive to rookie sailors. Freshmen Alex Chamberlin ('23) and Jack Denker ('23) and redshirt sophomores Bridget Maguire ('22), Adrian van der Waal ('22), and Julia Zaleski ('22) all made the short trip to Mystic Lake. Third-year Zach Bresnick was also in attendance as a coach. Typically a crew, Maguire subbed in as A Division skipper and worked with both Zaleski and Chamberlin as crews to finish 14th in the division. In B Division, van der Waal, the only regular skipper in attendance, started out with Denker before being replaced by Zaleski, who moved from A crew to B skipper for the second half. Despite all the mixing and matching, B division ended up 9th, giving the Huskies an overall 13th place finish.​
