College of Charleston
SAISA Men's Singlehanded
No. 3 Cougars Dominate SAISA Men's Singlehanded Championship
9/29/2014 9:49:00 PM | Sailing
Photo Courtesy: Grace Adam / CofC Sailing
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. – It was another busy weekend for the No. 3-ranked College of Charleston coed sailing team as the Cougars claimed all three national championship berths with a 1-2-3-4 finish at the SAISA Men's Singlehanded Championship regatta held over the weekend at the J. Stewart Walker Sailing Complex.
The offshore sailing team, in its second year as a varsity sport at CofC, also had a successful weekend winning the 2014 Leukemia Cup / SAYRA PHRF Offshore Championships, while its team race squad secured a seventh-place finish after three days of intense head-to-head battle with the best fleets in the country at the U.S. Team Racing National Championship event in Marblehead, Mass.
All four of CofC's men's laser sailors competed in the home-hosted singlehanded championship and convincingly took the Top 4 spots on the score sheet after nine races in challenging conditions.
Freshman newcomer Stefano Peschiera (Lima, Peru) won the regatta with an impressive nine-race series low score of 14 points followed closely by junior Dodge Rees (Pensacola, Fla.) with 23 points in second, junior Reed Baldridge (Clear Lake, Texas) with 28 points in third and sophomore Enrique Arathoon (Guatemala City, Guatemala) with 30 points in fourth.
Rees will make his second-straight appearance at the ICSA Singlehanded Nationals to be held on Nov. 8-9 in Bellingham, Wash., while it will be the first trip to nationals for Peschiera and Baldridge. Peschiera and Arathoon are currently campaigning for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, representing Peru and El Salvador respectively.
Up next, the Cougars will sail four events traveling to Atlanta for a North Points regatta, Miami for two women's interconference regattas and Connecticut to contend for the Danmark Trophy.
Offshore Sailors Raise More Than $1,500 For LLS…The CofC offshore sailing team raced an impressive series to win the 2014 Leukemia Cup – one of six events held across the country to raise awareness and support of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). Racing a J120, the Cougars managed three first-place finishes in the four-race event, attributing their top-notch performance to great crew work and solid tactical decisions over the race course. CofC was represented by skipper Jay Greenfield, tactician Noah Blacker (St. Petersburg, Fla.), primary trimmer Brandon Folkman (Redondo Beach, Calif.), secondary trimmer Charles Essi (Lakewood, Ohio), pit boss Corinne Durocher (Munroe, Mich.), squirrel Hanna Horan (Newport, R.I.), mastman Howie Meyers (Bellport, N.Y.) and bowman Brent Burrows II (Nassau, Bahamas). The team also fielded a second boat in the two-day event, a J36, finishing a strong eighth overall amongst the competitive fleet. The sailors raised over $1,500 in their fundraising efforts and will compete next at the Intercollegiate Offshore regatta the weekend of Oct. 10 in Larchmont, N.Y.
Cougars Place Seventh at U.S. Team Racing Championship…The CofC team race squad also competed at the U.S. Team Racing Championship hosted by the Eastern Yacht Club – a qualifying event for the 2015 ISAF Team Racing World Championship. Team captain Chase Shaw (Bacliff, Texas), Ryan Davidson (Newport Beach, Calif.), Nick Johnstone (Newport, R.I.), Seppie McAdams (Mt. Pleasant, S.C.), Jake Reynolds (San Diego, Calif.) and Beka Schiff (Tampa, Fla.) sailed to a respectable 6-5 record in the invite-only regatta. The Cougars competed against the best team race teams in the nation over the course of three days of intense racing. They claimed a win versus Team Ladies and Gentleman – the eventual regatta champion and placed seventh overall in the 12-team field. CofC also topped the leaderboard in the Silver division.
Players Mentioned
