George Washington University Athletics
George Washington University
Atlantic Coast Women's Championship
Sailing Concludes Fall Season at Atlantic Coast Championships
11/14/2016 12:00:00 AM | Sailing
The GW Sailing team saw its fall season come to a close last weekend with a pair of strong finishes at the Women's and Coed Atlantic Coast Championships.
The 16th-ranked women took 10th-place in an 18-team field at the Women's ACCs hosted by College of Charleston, outpacing No. 9 St. Mary's, No. 12 Hobart & William Smith and No. 18 Navy.
In the 18-race regatta, GW took ninth place in A Division and seventh in B Division as seven sailors saw action. Miranda Bakos (races 1-16) and Aitana Mendiguren (race 17-18) split time skippering A Division while Emma Mendenahall (races 1-10, 15-18) and Belle Strachan (races 11-14) crewed. Riley Legault skippered all 18 races in B Division while Alexandra Fayer (races 1-15) and Kia Olsson (races 16-18) shared crewing duties.
"The exciting thing for us is College of Charleston is where nationals are going to be in the spring, and we just learned a lot about the venue," said head coach Billy Martin. "We'll figure out a blueprint over the winter for how we want to attack nationals. We also showed our depth in this regatta. We ended up using seven sailors so we got a lot of people good quality time on the water to improve. To come away with a top-10 finish against a field that is comparable to nationals is great."
Meanwhile, GW narrowly missed out on a second top-10 finish by placing 11th at the Coed ACCs hosted by MIT on the Charles River. The 18-team field included the top 13 teams in the coed national rankings and the No. 12 Colonials finished ahead a number of them, including No. 2 Boston College, No. 7 Coast Guard and No. 11 Navy.
Skipper Brendan Shanahan and crew Andreea Ranney-Pace sailed the Colonials to an eighth-place finish in A Division while skippers Andrew Sheerin (races 1-10, 15-18) and Rhodes Garner (races 11-14), along with crew Edward D'Eliscu were 13th in B Division.
"We had some really good takeaways from this weekend," said Martin. "The venue on the Charles River is one of the more challenging venues you'll sail at, with really shifty conditions that we aren't used to. The New England schools definitely had an advantage. Despite that, the team showed grit, fought through it and got a good result against what is the toughest fleet you'll sail against outside of nationals. It's definitely a result to be proud of."
After breaking for winter, GW will open the spring season on Feb. 25-26, 2017, at the Charleston Women's Regatta.
Players Mentioned
