May 4, 2008

New England Team Race Championships for Fowle Trophy Results

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The No. 5 Bulldogs placed fifth at the New England Team Race Championships for the Fowle Trophy on Saturday and Sunday at Brown. The top-three teams from the regatta qualified for the ICSA/APS National Team Race Championships. The Bulldogs narrowly missed qualifying with a 10-9 record while Boston College won the event with a 16-3 record.

The New England Team Race Championship featured 12 of New England's top teams, of which only three qualified for the national championship. It was a tough battle for the Bulldogs who missed out on qualifying for the national championship in team racing for the first time since 2004. The Bulldogs placed second at the national championship in 2005 and 2007.

The Bulldogs 10-9 record, however, does not do justice to the team's strong performance at times. The Elis beat No. 7 Brown, who placed second at the championship, more times than any other competitor. This, however, did not allow the team to overcome a number of tough losses to No. 15 Tufts, who the Bulldogs lost fourth place to on a tie-breaker. The team also lost to No. 2 Boston College, who won the New England Championships, and No. 8 Harvard, who snagged the final qualifying spot to nationals in the final race of the competition, which was sailed against Tufts.

The regatta was sailed in Brown's fleet of 420's which were equipped with new sails. The weather featured light to moderate winds both days, with the wind ranging from four-to-eight knots on Saturday and five-to-10 knots on Sunday. Occasional light rain and misty skies accompanied the choppy water at the Brown venue.

The Bulldogs went through a number of skipper and crew combinations in order to find a way to achieve the best possible effort. Skippers included senior Zachary Brown, junior Jane Macky and sophomores John Kempton and Thomas Barrows. Crewing for the Bulldogs were senior Abigail Coplin, juniors Adriane Levin and Grace Becton and sophomores Marla Menninger and Michael Hession.

The Bulldogs have almost a month to practice until they compete at the ICSA/Gill Coed Dinghy National Championships in Newport, R.I. in 420's. The Bulldogs placed third at the national championships in 2007 and return the entirety of that 2007 squad.

Report filed by Caleb Dorfman '09, Yale Sports Publicity