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

New London, CT--(2/23/09)--The Coast Guard Academy Sailing Team finished 9th out of 18 teams this past weekend at the College of Charleston Spring Intersectional hosted by the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC. Having not been able to practice before the regatta due to cold New England weather, the Bears were happy to find themselves right in the middle of the fleet at the end of the weekend. Sam Ingham ’11 and Cezar Gomez ’10 finished 12th in A-Division with 114 points. In B-Division, Jon Duffett ’11, Jenn Hom ’09, and Chris Grabe ’10 finished 8th, with 104 points.

The Women’s Sailing Team also got off to a great start, finishing 2nd out of 9 teams at the University of South Florida (USF) Women’s Intersectional hosted by USF in St. Petersburg, FL. The sailors were treated to beautiful Florida sailing conditions which allowed for 18 races to be completed in both divisions. Sailing for the Bears in A-Division were Krysta Rohde ’11 and Kirstin Haas ’10 who finished 3rd in their division with 72 points. Jenn Proctor ’11 and Margaret Woodbridge ’10 sailed finished 3rd in B-Division with 61 points. This was a very good early season performance by the Lady Bears who hope to continue their success from the fall season - when they were ranked as high as 12th in the country - into the spring.

The next trip for the team will be to sunny Miami, FL for their annual spring break training trip. The team will take advantage of the warm weather to practice twice a day to get ready for the upcoming season. After spring break, the season officially gets underway on the weekend of March 21-22 with the St. Mary’s Women’s Intersectional at St. Mary’s, the Veitor Trophy at Salve Regina, and a Team Race Invite sailed at home at the academy.

Along with the Team Race Invite, CGA is hosting three major intersectionals during the season. The Southern New England Team Race, which is co-hosted by Connecticut College, will be held on April 4-5 and is one of the biggest team race events in college sailing during the spring season. A new event, the Women’s Emily Wick/Sloop Shrew Trophy will be hosted at the Academy for the first time on April 11-12 and will attract 18 of the top women’s teams from across the country. The Thompson Trophy, a major coed intersectional, will be the final regatta held at CGA on April 25-26.

The Bears will be working hard all season in hopes to qualify for the ICSA Spring Nationals, which will be held this year at Stamford University. The Co-Ed Qualifiers will be held at Boston College on April 18-19 and the Women’s qualifiers will be held at the University of Vermont on April 25-26.

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!