Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

SAILING | Weekend Regattas Offer Learning Experience

The Georgetown sailing team will travel across the Northeast this weekend, taking on competition from all over the country in three separate regattas. The team, especially the No. 2 ranked men’s squad, looks to build on its strong start to fulfill its lofty expectations.

The women’s squad will brave the frigid temperatures of Hanover, N.H., when they travel to Dartmouth with Head Coach Michael Callahan. Morning temperatures are expected to hover around 30 degrees, with a light wind pushing the temperature on the water even lower.

Up against more than just the frigid weather, the Georgetown women will face top-25 competitors from across the nation. Some of the best sailors on the team look to battle Boston College, Stanford and Brown — teams Callahan believes will be the toughest tests of the year for the Hoyas.

Meanwhile, the Hoyas will send a delegation to New York to face off against equally difficult competition. The conditions call for warmer temperatures on the open water, but that also bodes for more wind and waves for the Blue and Gray.

The regatta in New York will attract teams from the Hoyas’ conference, where Georgetown will send a coed group to maintain a strong footing against their opponents. The Blue and Gray will send two of their top senior women, Sydney Bolger, from Long Beach, Calif., and Rebecca Evans, from Cohasset, Mass.

A second coed group will travel to MIT to sail on the Charles River, a narrow test that offers virtually no wind. Of the three teams the Hoyas will send to Boston, none have ever sailed on the Charles River before.

“We probably prefer the conditions in New York,” Callahan said. “We race better when we have wind as opposed to the randomness of the Charles.”

Still, Callahan is confident in the teams he is sending to MIT.

“We’ve got three great skippers and crews, even if they haven’t sailed there,” he said.

These three regattas will offer plenty of tough competition for the Hoyas. The team is spreading out its sailors evenly across the three events, giving each a chance to win while making sure everybody gets more experience under their belts.

“The focus is not on winning but on spreading out sailors and trying to get good competing in,” Callahan said.

But Callahan believes that each team is talented enough to win if they race to their potential.

“I would never put [my team] in a situation where they would be totally overmatched,” Callahan said.

Callahan views the fall as an opportunity to improve and to peak for the spring season, when team national championships take place. Individual racing championships, the focus of junior Chris Barnard’s efforts, take place at the end of fall.

“Sailing is not the be-all and end-all of life,” Callahan said. “If we don’t win regattas, we won’t be entirely upset. But we work hard and we are looking for some reward.”

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