College of Charleston
SAISA Open N/S #1
Whitmyer Leads Cougars TO SAISA Open Victory
9/16/2013 9:04:00 PM | Sailing
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. – Led by a talented group of newcomers, the College of Charleston coed sailing team claimed a 32-point victory over Eckerd College to win the SAISA Open N/S #1 regatta held over the weekend at the J. Stewart Walker Sailing Complex.
The Cougars fielded two divisional squads and placed first (94 points) and third (163 points) respectively, while Eckerd was second with 126 points. South Florida (187 points) and Clemson (232 points) rounded out the top 5 in the 18-team in-conference regatta field.
SAISA sailors encountered a north wind around 5 knots on Saturday morning on the Cooper River and the race course was later moved to the north of the USS Yorktown to avoid the wind shadow.
Sunday's racing conditions included light northerly wind in the morning and quickly shifted to the east and filled at 8-12 knots. The shifty east wind and the changing tide kept the sailors on their toes.
Freshman skipper Declan Whitmyer (Darien, Conn.) led the way for the Cougars winning A-Division in his first college regatta by a margin of 21 points over second-place USF with freshman crew Chloe Dapp (Newport Beach, Calif.) in races 1-16 and senior crew Roy Shaw (Bacliff, Texas) in races 17 and 18. The trio made top-5 finishes in 17-of-18 races.
In B-Division, CofC had two rotations place first and third to contribute to the overall team finish. Freshman skipper Jack Cusick (Fairfield, Conn.) sailed with freshman crew Kayla Adelman (Falmouth, Maine) and sophomore crew Kyle Sutter (San Diego, Calif.) for a five-point margin of victory over second-place Eckerd.
Sophomore skipper Sarah Mackey (Bellevue, Wash.) teamed with sophomore crew Charlotte Saxe (Wilton, Conn.) for a third-place finish in B-Division with 68 points.
Up next, the Cougars will sail in three regattas on Sept. 21-22 at North Points #2 in Knoxville, Tenn., the Nevins Trophy in Kings Point, N.Y., and the Hatch Brown in Boston, Mass.
Players Mentioned
