Sailing

Georgetown is on its way back to the team race national championships.

In the biggest of the team’s weekend regattas, the Hoyas took second at the Mid-Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association (MAISA) coed team race championship in Kings Point, N.Y., finishing two wins behind No. 1 St. Mary’s in the round-robin style regatta.

Fourth-ranked Georgetown finished 13-4, behind 15-2 St. Mary’s and ahead of 11-6 Navy. All three teams qualified for the national championships that will be held the last weekend in May at the University of Rhode Island.

“After not qualifying last year, it’s definitely nice to get back to nationals,” Head Coach Mike Callahan said. “It’s not easy getting out of [MAISA] because so many of the top teams are in our division.”

MAISA teams occupy three of the top 10 spots in the Sailing World coaches’ poll and No. 1 St. Mary’s has been nationally dominant for the past two seasons.

On the women’s side, seniors Blaire Herron and Leigh Fogwell paced Georgetown by taking the A division at the President’s Cup in Boston. Georgetown finished second to Yale overall, in the final regatta before national qualifying races begin in earnest.

The women’s team is ranked fifth in the latest Sailing World poll and the only MAISA team currently ahead in the coaches’ minds is No. 1 St. Mary’s.

“We’re coming on four big weekends in a row now,” Callahan said. “We’ve been a top-five team all spring so we will definitely have a chance at the national regattas.”

— Fiore Mastroianni

Crew

The Hoyas did not have to travel very far from home last Sunday to take on crews at the George Mason Invitational. And the way the rowers performed, the Occoquan Reservoir may well have been the Hoyas’ own Potomac.

The women’s lightweight crew outraced varsity crews from George Washington, George Mason and Dayton in the lightweight category, and dropped just barely short of victory in a closely fought battle against the Bucknell openweights.

“I was impressed with the way our lightweights performed this weekend,” Head Coach Glenn Putyrae said in a press release. “We were the only school to bring a lightweight crew, and they performed well against the varsity boats they competed against.”

It was an overall good day for the Blue and Gray, who went into the meet under sunny skies and on calm waters, conditions described by Putyrae as “excellent.”

Defeating three teams out of four, despite the close loss to Bucknell, was a good showing for Georgetown. Bbeing the only crew of their category in the meet made the triple-victory even more special.

— Hijab Shah