With the first month of the season drawing to a close, the Georgetown sailing team is already claiming it’s spot at the top of the heap. The men are ranked fourth nationally, and the women’s team, currently ranked seventh, is focused on achieving a place in the top five.
This past weekend at the Senator’s Cup, hosted by St. Mary’s College, the team placed second out of 18 schools, qualifying for their conference championship regatta, Memorial War, on October 28-29.
The freshmen in particular had an outstanding weekend. At the Laser South Qualifier, Evan Aras took first place, scoring 57 points in the regatta’s 18 races.
“Our freshmen have been fantastic,” head coach Mike Callahan said. “We had six freshmen who sailed and either took first place in their regatta or their division, which is pretty special for the whole group.”
At Fordham University’s Jesuit Cup, the Georgetown freshmen dominated the waters. Sailors were split into two divisions, freshmen Scott Furnary and Ginger Cutler represented Georgetown in the A division, while junior Brooke Crawford and freshman Michael Campbell sailed in the B division.
Weather conditions didn’t deter the Hoyas, although light afternoon rain presented the sailors with a challenge.
“Sailing at Georgetown you get a lot of light wind, which is basically anything from 0-7 miles an hour,” Campbell said via e-mail. “When it’s windier we can do well, it’s just a matter of how much practice we can get in, but this weekend at the Jesuit Cup it was fairly light.”
Campbell admitted the rain altered his strategy.
“I was trying to keep the boat going fast in the light winds and strong currents,” he wrote. “In the afternoon, significant rain made the racing more about finding puffs of wind and connecting them up the course.”
Hoya sailors won both the A and B divisions, out-sailing their opponents by 30.5 points.
