NORFOLK, Va. -- Christopher Newport Sailing won the Grant Trophy this weekend and qualified for the 2026 America Trophy held at St. Mary's College of Maryland next week. The Captains rolled to a dominant victory in Norfolk with 83 points to secure a berth into the MAISA Open Fleet Race Championship. 

CNU, which had narrowly missed out on a fall qualifying berth with a 13th place finish at the War Memorial, solidified its spot in the America Trophy this weekend with an exceptional showing on the water. The Captains outpaced the second-place finishing team, US Merchant Marine, by 27 points. 

 The Captains won the B division title in the regatta with 43 points to edge out the Mariners by one. Aston Atherton sailed with Berend van der Meer in the first rotation before Grace Watlington took over for the remainder of the event. Watlington and van der Meer finished strong on day one, capturing a win in the eighth and final race on Saturday. On Sunday, the duo got right back to work with another bullet in the second race of the day and the B division boat finished the 14-race regatta with ten top-three efforts. 

The A division tandem of Josh Bendura and Hannah Louise Roethel finished second with 40 points. They were just seven points behind Princeton winning the division and scored 26 points better than Merchant Marine in third. The A division boat also finished day one strong, closing out the day 1-1-2-3 in the final four races. Bendura and Roethel added another win in the first race on Sunday and finished out of the top five only once. 

In addition to the Captains, the next six teams in the standings also qualified for the America Trophy -- Merchant Marine, Old Dominion, Princeton, NY Maritime, Columbia, and William & Mary. Live scoring will be available for the regatta in Maryland this weekend with action scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at St. Mary's (Md.). The MAISA champion earns an automatic berth into the ICSA National Championship.