Count Down to College Sailing, NEISA Edition

Created on Wednesday, 29 August 2012 23:18

Sail1Design would like to officially welcome another new member to the Airwaves team, Kelly Stannard, whose bio is below her first news story. Enjoy

Summer is over,  college sailors have to say goodbye to the Jr. Programs where they have taught, done last minute back to school shopping, packed and unpacked their cars and many have started classes. It is now just t-minus two weekends until college sailors all over New England will hit the water and end their short hiatus away from the rigorous college sailing lifestyle.

With many NEISA schools starting classes this week, practice will start too. New gear, new sails, and new teammates will all be brought out to shake off the summer rust and get ready for the first weekend of competition. Which NEISA team will come out of the gates strong?

Determining which co-ed NEISA team is the most powerful or most successful has never been easy to predict because the conference has such a dense talent pool. Head coach Yale Zach Leonard said it best, “NEISA is so hard; every team has potential to be great. There are so many teams that do well, it is hard to say just one, I see about eight or nine teams that will do well. “

Who is on “top” often flip-flops and changes countless times from the start of a season to the end. What we can look at is the results from the ICSA 2012 spring championships and see who graduated their all-stars. In no particular order, below are some profiles of teams who will likely be at the top of the rankings at the beginning of the season.

Yale had to say goodbye to several key players on their team like the A-division combo of Joe Morris and Isabel Elliman. “There are three skippers who will be in a position to step up. Whoever is sailing consistently will sail,” says Coach Leonard.

The team still has three more years with Graham Landy who was named an All-American as a freshman and NEISA rookie of the year. Paired up with Landy is Heather May who will be a senior; she too was an All-American and NEISA crew of the year in the spring season. Chris Segerblom and Cam Cullman are also still around who alternated through the top team will certainly be strong players this year and aid in making Yale a tough team to beat in fleet racing this fall.

Boston College graduated their co-ed and women’s A-division All-American skipper Annie Haeger and one of their several rock star crew’s Briana Provancha. Still holding down the fort is sophomore William Bailey who as a freshman last year skippered on their team race team and frequently was seen as their B-division as well as junior skipper Alex Cook. This team still has two of their top three skippers and a deep line-up of crews such as All-American Laura McKenna, which will make BC a force to be reckoned with as usual.

Roger Williams was the top finishing NEISA team placing second at the 2012 ICSA Dingy National Championship graduated B-division duo Sean Bouchard and Kelly Stannard along with a top crew, Tyler Wilson. College sailor of the year finalist Alec Anderson along with sophomore Tyler MacDonald, last years third skipper of their team race team, will both be sailing at top events this fall.

“Tyler Macdonald, Max Lopez, and Sam Bobo will likely be making a step up”, says coach Callahan. With these tops players named and a depth of talent on the B team will push Roger Williams to have consistent top finishes this season.

Brown didn’t graduate any of their A-team sailors, which will certainly mean we should expect this team to perform very well in the fall season. They have skippers Colin Smith who was named an All American Honorable Mention, Tommy Fink and Tyler Rice along with their crews, All-American Luisa Chaffee, Ashley Noble and Molly Bernstein.  With a returning cast like this, top finishes in fleet racing can be anticipated throughout the fall.

Harvard skippers Brendan Kopp and Emily Lambert have graduated but historically Harvard is a team with some depth with several players who should be able to keep them on top of the competition list. They have the Drumm brothers, Michael and Brian and also solid crews such as Sarah Pierson to keep the team alive and well for fall fleet racing.

Tufts graduated their B division skipper Massimo Soriano but will still have A division skipper and crew Will Haeger and Paula Grasberger who will only be juniors this year. Along with them is senior skipper William Hutchings, all will likely see lots of tiller time this fall. Led by seasoned coach Ken Legler the Tuft’s Jumbo’s can never be underestimated as a threat.

URI is a quickly advancing team, this will be their second year having Nick Ewenson as head coach. The Ram’s graduated their A division duo of Amy Hawkins and Caroline Hall. Coach Ewensen says, “Sophomores Caleb Armstrong and Katie Norton made huge strides last spring and were real contributors as freshman. More opportunities will come their way this year, and with a full season under their belts, I'm hopeful they can start right where they left off last year.”

Dartmouth has a strong coaching staff with co-head coaches John Storch and Justin Assad to lead this young and quick team to good places this fall. The Big Green graduated A division skipper Sam Williams but from the top squad remains his crew Matthew Habig and the B division team of Matthew Wefer and Avery Plough to keep the team at the top.

MIT had a strong year last year but missed qualifying for semis by losing a tie-break in coeds, and missed it by just two spots on the women's side. Coach Matt Cohen has said, “With hard work and lots of talent, the Engineers are looking to avenge those near misses.” In addition, “Our team is looking to have a very strong year in '12-'13. Despite graduating a top skipper and crew per squad (Eamon Glackin and AllAmerican crew Steph Tong on the coed side, Katii Gullick and Jacqui
Soegaard on the women's side), we are supplementing our returning
sailors with a strong group of recruits,” explains Cohen.

Boston University had a successful 2011-2012 season capped off with a 12^th place finish at the Gill Dinghy National Championship in Austin, TX. They graduated both their A and B division skippers leaving lots of room for underclassmen to fill big shoes this fall season. The Terriers have historically always been right in the top mix, this will likely hold true this fall.

These are only ten teams from the long list of excellent teams that call NEISA their home. Per usual this season will provide exciting and close competition on all levels from intersectional events to the central and southern series events. You can follow results on Techscore.com throughout the season and we recommend you keep an eye out for some upsets in results, no team in NEISA is ever very far from the top of the fleet.

http://neisa.collegesailing.org/

 

 

Kelly Stannard is a recent communications graduate from Roger Williams where she was drawn to the small school feel and the big sailing team potential. While attending school Kelly was the captain of her team her junior and senior year when the team won the 2011 ICSA Team Race Nationals and placed second at the 2012 ICSA National Championship. In addition to the teams’ success Kelly was named an All-American Crew three times and the RWU Female Athlete of the year. In non- collegiate events Kelly was part of team Minor Threat who won the US Sailing Team Race Nationals in 2011. Kelly interned at US Sailing, working with marketing and communications team, she helped maintain their blog and social media outlets.

Kelly was born in Connecticut and lives in Salem, a short drive to Niantic where she learned to sail in Opti’s and 420’s at Niantic Bay Yacht Club. She found success in junior sailing, posting respectable finishes at the US Sailing Youth Champ’s in 2006 and 2007, highlighted by winning the Ida Lewis Trophy in 2007. She just finished up her summer as the head coach of Wickford Sailing Association and is applying for full-time positions currently. Kelly enjoys team racing and looks forward to trying out new classes of boats.

You can reach Kelly at : kelly@sail1design.com