March 16, 2008
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Elis returned to fleet racing after focusing on team racing in the past weeks with a strong third-place finish at the Truxton Umsted Intersectional Regatta hosted by the Naval Academy on Mar. 15 and 16. The Bulldogs finished the regatta with 391 points over the 18 races in three divisions.
The Bulldogs, who came off of a week of intense training during spring break, faced 8-12 knot winds that died throughout the day on Saturday. On Sunday, the Elis had to wait in the rain until wind finally filled in and continued at 12-18 knots throughout the racing.
The long waits and wind did not slow the success of the Bulldogs as sophomore captain Thomas Barrows turned in a dominating performance in C division, which sailed Lasers the entire regatta. Barrows, the defending Singlehanded national champion who recently competed at the Laser World Championships, continued his success in the Laser class this year by scoring 46 points over the 18 races. Barrows never finished outside the top five boats and placed in the top three boats in 13 of the 18 races, including five first-place finishes. The 46-point performance that Barrows turned in was less than half of that of the third place finish from No. 2 Boston College.
While the performances of the Elis were not as strong in A and B divisions, they were still solid and kept the Bulldogs in contention at the Truxton Umsted, which is the largest regatta of the spring season with three divisions and 20 competing schools.
In A Division, senior Zachary Brown and junior Grace Becton placed 7th with 162 points. Brown and Becton only placed outside of the top half of competitors in three of the 18 races. The A division performance was highlighted by a win in race 11. The Elis finished only 11 points out of fourth place in their division.
In B Division, sophomore skipper John Kempton and junior Adriane Levin turned in a 183-point performance that was good for 11th place in their division, losing 10th place to Boston University on a tie breaker. While the B division finishes were not consistent during the entire regatta, Kempton and Levin began to find their groove near the end of the regatta, especially during the last two races in which they placed first and third respectively.
While still early in the season, the solid results across the divisions shows that the No. 3 Bulldogs are as strong in fleet racing as in team racing, which the squad won a regatta in two weeks ago. The Elis only lost to No. 1 St. Mary's College and No. 2 Boston College, both of whom Yale will face again this coming weekend at the Boston Dinghy Club Cup and at the Owen Trophy hosted by Yale.
Report filed by Caleb Dorfman '09, Yale Sports Publicity