United States Coast Guard Academy - Department of Athletics - Intercollegiate Sailing

New London, CT--(9/11/08)--The Coast Guard Academy Sailing Team will open the 2008 Fall Season this weekend in hopes to continue and improve upon their success from the 2007 season. The team will travel to and host over 45 regattas throughout the fall, with multiple members of the team traveling to up to six regattas on any given weekend. Although the team graduated several key players in the spring, the younger members of the team have been practicing for the past three weeks and will be ready to step up and fill in those gaps.

Sophomore Sam Ingham and Junior Cezar Gomez will lead the Co-ed team this fall.

The Co-ed team will be let by sophomore skippers Sam Ingham and Jon Duffett and junior skipper Ian Oviatt. Teaming up with them will be senior crew Jenn Hom, junior crew Cezar Gomez and sophomore crew Tanya Cuprak. The team will begin the season this weekend with the Pine Trophy hosted by CGA. Their season really gets rolling on September 20th and 21st with their first major regatta, the Hatch Brown Trophy at MIT. Major events of the season also include the Danmark Trophy at CGA on October 4th and 5th, the Hoyt Trophy at Brown on October 25th and 26th and the Schell Trophy at MIT on November 1st and 2nd. At all three of these regattas, the team will be competing to earn a berth to the Atlantic Coast Championship at Hobart/William Smith on November 15th and 16th.

Sophomore Krysta Rohde will look to defend her national title.

The Women’s Team also gets underway this weekend with the Man-Labs trophy at MIT on September 13th and the Captain’s Cup at Tufts on September 14th. Leading the women’s team this year will be sophomore skippers Krysta Rohde and Jenn Proctor and junior crews Kirstin Haas and Margaret Woodbridge. After being nationally ranked for several months last season, the Lady Bears find themselves in the “Also Receiving Votes” category of the rankings going into the fall season, a first for CGA. In 2007, Rohde won the ICSA Women’s Singlehanded National Championship, the first women’s championship ever won by CGA and the first championship since 1963. For her efforts, Rohde was named the New England Sailing Association’s Women’s Rookie of the Year and won the best achievement as a freshman award for CGA athletics. On September 27th and 28th, Rohde will be competing in the New England Women’s Single’s Championship at Connecticut College in hopes to earn a berth to defend her title at Nationals, hosted by Cornell from October 24th-26th.

As one of the premiere college sailing venues in the country, CGA will host four major regattas this season. Teams will travel from as far away as California, Florida and Hawaii to battle it out on the Thames River. The first, which is also on this first weekend of competition, is the Pine Trophy, a sloop intersectional named after Vice Admiral James Pine. This will act as a warm-up regatta for the sloop team, led by sophomore skipper Sam Ingham, who will be competing in the New England Sloop Championships at CGA on September 27th and 28th. CGA won this event in 2006 and went on to finish third at the ICSA Sloop National Championship. CGA will finish up their hosting season with the Danmark Trophy, a major two-division intersectional on October 4th and 5th, and the Hap Moore Team Race on October 11th and 12th.

As always, spectators are encouraged to come down to Jacob’s Rock during any of our home regattas to view the sailing from CGA’s famous observation deck. Family, friends, and spectators are also always welcome to come and cheer on the team at away regattas. Continue to check cgasports.com for additional updates and highlights throughout the season. Go Bears!