Jumbos make the second round of the Intercollegiate Sailing Association team racing finals
The Tufts sailing team finished eighth out of 16 teams at the 2015 Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) team racing championship held May 26 to 28 on Narragansett Bay.
The Jumbos advanced out of a 16-team preliminary round into an eight-team second round, but were unable to move into the final four.
Tufts had a slow start on May 26, winning just four of 11 preliminary races. However, the Jumbos rebounded early the next day to take three of four starts and finish with a 7-8 preliminary record. The wins came against Navy, South Florida, Wisconsin, UC Santa Barbara, Michigan, Texas A&M Galveston and Oregon State. The losses were versus Yale, the College of Charleston, Boston College, Georgetown, Stanford, St. Mary’s (Maryland), Roger Williams and Fordham.
The Jumbos competed in the second round later on May 27 and early on May 28. Yale, Stanford, Boston College, Roger Williams, Charleston, St. Mary’s and Georgetown were the other teams. Tufts won just two of those races, over eventual champion Yale and third-place Stanford.
Tufts’ 9-13 overall record for the two rounds of racing was a .409 winning percentage, placing eighth overall. Yale won with a 21-4 overall mark, followed by Boston College (19-6), Stanford (17-8) and Charleston (17-8).
Sailing for the three Jumbo boats were senior skippers Alec Ruiz-Ramon, Dan Nickerson and Duncan Swain. Senior Sam Madden crewed for Ruiz-Ramon in every preliminary race, as did first-year Emily Shanley-Roberts for Swain. Senior Jamie Maffeo crewed with Nickerson for all but one preliminary race, when sophomore Leah Fletcher was on board.
The Jumbos switched it up in higher wins for the second-round races. Sophomore Alex Tong crewed for Ruiz-Ramon in six of seven starts, with Madden stepping in for the other. Madden was with Swain seven times, with Shanley-Roberts handling the other race. Fletcher crewed seven races with Nickerson, and Maffeo had the other.
Yale University is the national champion and winner of the Walter C. Wood Trophy for the third year in a row.
This event was the second of three collegiate sailing national championships co-hosted by Brown University, Salve Regina University and the New York Yacht Club this spring. The Jumbos will also compete in the ICSA Dinghy Championship semifinals June 1-4 in Newport, Rhode Island.
Tufts Sports Information Director Paul Sweeney can be reached at paul.sweeney@tufts.edu.
