The Women of Brown University stay atop women’s sailing in winning the Jen Harris Women's Showcase Finals
Brown University won the Jen Harris Women’s Showcase Finals held at the US Naval Academy in what was a truncated, 20 race event due to lack of wind. The Brown Bears showed their depth throughout the event as they were the only team to place in the top-4 in both the A and B Divisions.
Brown is the reigning Women’s National Champion, winning last year’s main event in big breeze at home in Newport, RI. However, after this victory, at what is the equivalent of the Atlantic Coast Championship in medium to light conditions, Brown proved they are still the team to beat in all conditions.
Without just a few conference events on the schedule, college sailing is focused this week on interconference events and ICSA Showcase co-ed regattas. On the Thames River at Connecticut College, women's teams from across the US competed for the famed Stu Nelson Trophy in what could be considered a preview of the upcoming Women's Showcase events in MAISA. In nearly perfect conditions, the Bulls of the University of South Florida started strong in A-Division led by skipper Marina Barzaghi, and crews Carolina Rovira and Samantha Kappaz, this week's SAISA women's Sailors of the Week. Finishing day one on the heels of the Stanford Cardinal, the Bulls returned for Sunday driving for a podium finish. Barzaghi, Rovira, and Kappaz delivered six top-3 finishes during the regatta including 2 bullets and brought a third-place A-Division rank and an overall regatta fourth for the event back to St. Petersburg against a deep field of competitors.
*** Burnes and Wang are the NEISA Co-ed Sailors of the Week***
***Burn and Williams are the NEISA Women Sailors of the Week***
The Coed sailors qualify for the Coed Showcase Finals- The Fiske Harriman Sleigh at Connecticut College; Stanford and Harvard look strong before the Women’s Showcase Finals.
The United States Naval Academy won their side of the Coed Showcase Qualifiers, at home. The regatta was a full 36 race event and the drama extended throughout the event as Georgetown, the regatta leader from race 1B to race 17A were overtaken by Navy during the final set of the regatta.
Navy’s success came as a team effort as sophomore phenoms, Joseph Hermus and Sally Johnson won A-Division narrowly over Sean Segerblom ‘20 and Annabelle Ayer ‘22 of Georgetown. Meanwhile, Parker Loftus ‘20 and Kimmie Leonard ‘22 of Navy finished the regatta with a 1,2,1,1,1 to spark Navy’s run to pass the Hoyas. Navy has now won the last four doublehanded, fleet race regattas sailed at home.
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