June 8, 2012

Austin, Texas. (June 8, 2012) - Today was the last day of the
ICSA/Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship, the last of three highly
anticipated spring college sailing National Championships. The events
were co-hosted by the University of Texas Sailing Team and the Austin
Yacht Club on Lake Travis. Light and shifty winds made for difficult
conditions today, but it did not stop the Hoyas from dominating the
regatta. Leading all three days of the event, Georgetown University
won the National Title and the Henry A. Morss Memorial Trophy.
Competitors arrived this morning around 9 a.m. and sailing was
postponed for a lack of wind at 10 a.m. The weather was cloudy, hot
and humid. Forty-five minutes later wind began to fill in and
A-division hit the water for their first race. The winds were about
3-5 knots out of the northeast. The wind direction was similar to
yesterday, but the shifts were long and spotty.
Roger Williams University won the first A-division race, 11 A and
Harvard University won the next race in the set. B-division hit the
water for their first set of the day in a northeast breeze around 3-5
knots.
The cloud cover was shifting the wind around and race 13 in A-division
faced the brunt of the unstable conditions. The race was abandoned
three times before the wind direction and speed held steady. The
fourth try was a success, but by this time it was 4 p.m. and time in
the event was running out. This was the last race for A-division in
the regatta. The University of Wisconsin-Madison won the race by about
43 seconds followed by Yale University and Tufts University.
The last race of the day and the event was 13B, which had one general
recall. Georgetown was leading the race in the beginning, but was
overtaken by Brown University. Brown won the race followed by Yale and
the College of Charleston.
Three races in each division were completed today for a total of 13 in
each division for the regatta.
Georgetown sailed a solid and consistent regatta to win the title and
the Henry A. Morss Memorial Trophy awarded to the winning team. The
trophy was donated by a group of nationally known yachtsmen as a
memorial to Henry A. Morss, a Boston yachtsman and 1907 Bermuda Race
winner, as well as an MIT alumnus and benefactor.
"Georgetown approached each day of the event like three different
regattas, " said Mike Callahan Georgetown's head coach. "The sailors
started each day fresh and did not worry about other teams, they just
focused on their own sailing".
Typically at the end of a regatta the leading team has to be careful
of close competitors, however Georgetown had a significant lead over
second and clinched the regatta before the last race. They finished
the regatta 32 points ahead of second place.
"It was fun to go into the last race winning the event," Callahan
says. This is the second time Georgetown has won the ICSA/Gill
Championship and the fifth time they have placed in it in the last
nine years.
Callahan is especially proud of the seniors who competed in the event,
B-division sailors, Evan Aras '12 (Annapolis, Md.) and Katherine Canty
'12 (Vero Beach, Fla.). "I am happy for the seniors to win a national
title in their last year of college," he says. Aras was always able to
catch up when he fell behind and Chris Barnard '13 (Newport Beach,
Calif.) and Hilary Kenyon '13 (Wayzata, Minn.) in A-division were rock
solid, Callahan says.
"Georgetown had good starts, they were solid tactically and always
seemed to do the right thing," Bill Healy, Yale's assistant coach
said..

For additional regatta information and results visit the event
website: http://2012nationals.collegesailing.org/.
FINAL RESULTS
1. Georgetown University, 137
2. Roger Williams University, 169
3. Yale University, 171
4. College of Charleston, 207
5. Harvard University, 213
6. Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 231
7. Boston College, 231
8. Stanford University, 246
9. Tufts University, 252
10. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 255
11. University of South Florida, 263
12. Boston University, 264
13. University of Miami, 267
14. Dartmouth College, 277
15. Brown University, 284
16. U.S. Naval Academy, 306
17. Old Dominion University, 318
18. SUNY Maritime College, 358