BOSTON, Mass. -- The Christopher Newport sailing season came to a close this weekend as the team participated in a pair of regattas to close out the spring slate. In Maryland, the Captains women's squad finished 10th out of 14 teams in the MAISA Women's Championships and on the water in Boston, the Captains finished 19th at the 85th Boston Dinghy Club Challenge Cup.
The top-ten finish for the CNU women came after eight races were sailed on Saturday and the remaining six on Sunday. The Captains finished with 256 total points (138-118) and finished behind Hobart & William Smith for ninth. Cornell won the event and the automatic qualifying berth into the ICSA Women's National Championship while Georgetown finished second and also qualified.
The A division boat was sailed by
Grace Watlington with junior crew
Grace Keene as the pair finished 11th with 138 points. They had a high finish of fifth and crossed the line in the top-ten eight times out of 14 races. In B division sailing
Laura Smith steered with
Kiara Templeton in 12 of the 14 races while senior
Shelby Svilich filled in for the final rotation on Saturday. The B division boat finished with 118 points and a 10th place effort that included ten top-ten finished and three top-five efforts.
Up the coast at the MIT-hosted BDC Challenge Cup, the Captains faced wet conditions on Sunday after a beautiful day of sailing on Saturday. Ten races were completed in three divisions on Saturday with four more finished out on the final day.
The best effort for CNU came in B division, where Joshua Bendura and
Gail Schneider sailed to a 16th-place finish with 203 points. They matched Princeton, but took 16th on a head-to-head tiebreaker. Bendura and Schneider had a weekend-best finish of 10th in race number six, kicking off a run of four straight finishes in the top-12.
The Captains C division boat was raced by senior tandem
David Grace and
Carson Rozell. The duo finished in 17th with 214 points, again tying Princeton and winning the tiebreaker. The veteran pair captured the best effort of the regatta for CNU with a sixth-place showing in race number seven.
Finally, the A division boat sailed to an 18th place finish with 212 points.
Brian Fox was the primary skipper as a senior while freshman
Aston Atherton stepped in for one rotation.
Sebastian Beavers served as crew through all 14 races. The A division group notched two top-ten finishes and closed out strong with a team-high 12-12 in the final two races.
