Co-ed Sailing is Runner-Up to Vermont at Wood Trophy Team Race

Recap, photo courtesy of Tufts

Juliana Testa crewed Jumbo races in Saturday's round-robin.

CAMBRIDGE – The Tufts University co-ed sailing team had a strong showing at the Wood Trophy Team Race hosted by Harvard over the weekend, placing second of nine teams.

Tufts was in first place after Saturday's opening round with a 7-1 record. The Jumbos were one of four teams to advance to a final round, where they were the runner-up to Vermont. The Catamounts defeated Tufts with first, second and fifth finishes in a head-to-head final four race. The Jumbos recorded a 9-2 record for the weekend overall.

Tufts was excellent in Saturday's round-robin, including sweeps of the top three spots against Harvard, MIT and Penn. They also had victories over Northeastern, Princeton, Rhode Island and Vermont. The Jumbos' lone loss in the round was to Fordham.

The Jumbos then defeated Fordham and Rhode Island in the finals on Sunday, but lost out to Vermont.

On Saturday, Tufts used senior skipper Jackson McCoy with junior crew Emma Clutterbuck, senior skipper Cam Holley with senior crew Ian Morgan and senior skipper Chris Keller with sophomore crew Juliana Testa. On Sunday, the Jumbos switched up and had freshman skipper Charlie Hibben with senior crew Sabina Van Mell, senior skipper Jack Bitney with sophomore crew Maria Brush and senior skipper Sammy Shea with freshman crew Jessica Friedman.

Saturday featured beautiful late winter conditions with a cloudless sky and temps in the 40s. A light breeze averaged from the North, although the first upwind generally saw NW and the second upwind generally saw NE. The breeze went SE for the last 2.5 flights and a full round-robin was completed, with the last start at 5:05 pm.

The pleasant Saturday weather was rudely blown out by a stiff, cold SE breeze on Sunday with a driving wintry mix and puffs into the 20s. The top four sailed out and completed a full set of three flights, with the first gun at 11:30 am and all teams off the water by 12:45 pm. Tight, exciting racing in the final round led to a UVM victory.