GW Sailing Clinches Key MAISA Qualifying Spots

Sunday, October 5

St. Mary's City, MD

TBA

George Washington University

MAISA South Fall Qualifier

Colonials of the Week - September 15, 2014 - GW sailing junior Henry Young and freshman Kai Friesecke

10/5/2014 12:00:00 AM | Sailing

Oct. 5, 2014

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RESULTS: MAISA Women's Fall Championships | MAISA South Fall Qualifier | Jesuit Open

WASHINGTON - GW sailing set or matched its best-ever finishes at the MAISA Women's Fall Championship and MAISA South Fall Qualifier to secure qualifying positions from each event in a successful weekend of racing.

"It was good to check both those boxes off this weekend, we did what we needed to do and we did a really good job of it," said Head Coach John Pearce on posting qualifying finishes at the pair of MAISA regattas. "Now we're excited to go into another set of big regattas next weekend."

At the 15-team MAISA South Fall Qualifier in St. Mary's City, GW matched last year's performance and once again secured a berth in the War Memorial MAISA Fall Coed Championship with a third-place finish of 117 points over 15 races. GW, the 20th-ranked coed team in the nation, finished 18 points behind event winner No. 2 Georgetown (99) and nine points shy of No. 12 St. Mary's (108) while easily outdistancing No. 9 Old Dominion (154) and No. 11 Navy (219).

The Colonials received consistent efforts from all six sailors with a second-place finish in B Division and third in A Division. The quartet of freshmen skippers Kai Friesecke and Roger Dorr and senior Matthew Ricci and junior Henry Young took second in B Division with 48 points, never placing lower than eighth with four race victories, including three wins by Friesecke and Young. The A Division duo of sophomore Brendan Shanahan and rookie Miranda Bakos place third with 69 points, finishing outside the top 10 just twice with a victory in Race 2.

The Colonials are now through to the War Memorial hosted by SUNY Maritime in Bronx, New York on Nov. 1-2.

At the MAISA Women's Fall Championship in Annapolis, GW finished a program-best fifth out of 14 teams with 144 points over 14 races. Georgetown, the No. 14 women's program in the nation, captured the conference crown with 69 points, followed by No. 9 Navy (111), St. Mary's (132), Old Dominion (135) and the Colonials.

Freshmen India Johnstone and Belle Strachan led the way for GW as the pair won three of the opening five races and finished in the top 10 in all 14 en route to second in B Division with 47 points. In A Division, the quintet of senior Meagan Murphy, juniors Hannah McNomee and Maria Sinagra and sophomores Gabriella Marki and Madison Oleson finished in the top 10 in 12 races, including a win by McNomee and Murphy in Race 7, to place eighth with 97 points.

GW is now qualified for the Women's Atlantic Coast Championship in Cambridge, Massachusetts the weekend of Nov. 15-16.

Only six races were sailed at Fordham's Jesuit Open Interconference due to high winds and rough conditions off of City Island in Long Island Sound, with GW finishing ninth out of 18 teams with 104 points. The A Division team of sophomore Daniel DelBello and Shira Golub placed ninth with 51 points, while the B Division of sophomores Colin Kennedy and Kelly Dong and freshman Sam White came in ninth with 53 points.

GW will have the team local next weekend for Georgetown's Tom Curtis Regatta at the Washington Sailing Marina in Alexandria, while Shanahan will head to Annapolis to compete in the MAISA Men's Singlehanded Championship with a chance to earn his way to the ICSA Singlehanded National Championship in Bellingham, Washington next month.