Sailing Seeks Team Race Title in Virginia
24 May 2018 Sailing Seeks Team Race Title in Virginia
The Hobart and William Smith Colleges sailing team will compete for the 2018 College Sailing/LaserPerformance Team Race Championship this weekend, May 26-28 at Old Dominion Universitys Sailing Center on the Elizabeth River in Norfolk, Va. The Colleges are ranked fourth in the latest Sail1Design ICSA college team race rankings.
Sixteen teams will begin competition on Saturday at the ODU Sailing Center. In the team race format, each team has three boats and sails head-to-head against one other team, so each race is either a win or a loss. After a full round robin stage where each team faces off with the other 15 teams, the top eight teams will split off for a second round robin. Once the top eight round robin is complete, the top four teams will partake in a final four round robin which will determine the podium places. The national champion will bring home the Walter C. Wood Trophy.
HWS earned a spot in this weekends championship thanks to a fourth place finish at the Prosser Trophy in Ithaca, N.Y. Greiner Hobbs 18, Charlie Miller 19, and Hector Guzman 20served as skippers while Haley Okun 18, Chris Manson-Hing 19, Lindsay Kloc 29 and Russell Merchant 19and Maya Weber 20 and Kyle Easton 20competed as crew for the Colleges. HWS was 15-6 on the weekend. The Colleges were 6-1 in the first round robin, 5-2 in the second, and 4-3 in the third. Georgetown, George Washington and Cornell were the other MAISA qualifying schools.
The Colleges will open Saturdays racing against George Washington. HWS was 1-2 against the Colonials at the Prosser Trophy. This years field also includes Boston College, College of Charleston, Dartmouth, Michigan, Roger Williams, South Florida, Stanford, Texas A&M at Galveston, UC Santa Barbara, Washington, Wisconsin, and Yale.
The Colleges are making their second consecutive and 11th overall appearance at the team race national championships since 1999. HWS finished fifth last year in Charleston, S.C. The Colleges brought home the Walter C. Wood Trophy as national champions in 2005.