Tech Sailors in ACC Can't Rise to End Fall

Nov. 13, 2005

By
Mike Stoller

ST. MARY'S CITY, Md. - The MIT sailors placed 14th among 18 teams, this past weekend, in the Atlantic Coast Championship (ACC) Dinghy Final, putting a stamp on an otherwise successful campaign highlighted by several top-five placements in the major regattas.

Amid sunny skies, with temperatures in the upper 60's, the sailors couldn't have asked for better weather as the fall foliage adorned the racecourse, breezes mostly southerly at 4-7 knots, Saturday, and 6-12, Sunday.

The Engineers, who just two weeks ago rallied to finish third in the Erwin Schell Trophy, failed to muster any kind of a hot streak that would have been symbolic of their season. The usually reliable A-Division tandem of Jack Field and Wyman Li, who led the surge in the Schell, placed third in round three, but then were unable to garner even a top-10 slot until the 11th joust, when the duo ranked seventh. Their sound fifth-place marks in races 13 and 15 - the finale -were not enough to overcome their earlier struggles, and they finished with a score of 172.

Tech's B-Division trio of Jake Muhleman, Brooks Reed, and Julie Arsenault fared better with a tally of 150, but ultimately they, too, would succumb after a pair of sparkling fourth-place finishes in the fifth and sixth rounds. The doldrums for Tech continued as the three never again slotted in the top-five during the two-day event hosted by St. Mary's College of Maryland.

Brown University won the ACC with a score of 206, followed by Georgetown University at 218. Harvard University, Boston College, and Tufts University all finished in the top five.

MIT will resume the sailing campaign in March when it competes in the Admiral Moore Trophy in the Bronx, New York.