Peschiera, Arathoon, Williams Finish 1-2-3 To Qualify For ICSA Singlehanded Nationals

Friday, September 23

J. Stewart Walker Sailing Complex

All Day

College of Charleston

Leukemia Cup Offshore

Peschiera, Arathoon, Williams Finish 1-2-3 To Qualify For ICSA Singlehanded Nationals

9/26/2016 12:50:00 PM | Sailing

CHARLESTON, S.C. – The College of Charleston made a 1-2-3 finish at the SAISA Men's Singlehanded Championship to have three sailors qualify and advance to the ICSA Singlehanded National Championship to be held on Nov. 5-6 in Galveston, Texas.

Leading the way for the Cougars was defending SAISA Men's Singlehanded champion and 2016 Rio Olympian Stefano Peschiera (Lima, Peru) in first with 13 points followed by fellow Olympian Enrique Arathoon (Guatemala City, Guatemala) in second with 20 points and sophomore Gerald Williams (Sai Kung, Hong Kong, China) in third with 37 points. Freshman Steven Leuck (San Diego, Calif.) also competed in the event finishing fifth with 60 points.

"Our team sailed great," CofC Director of Sailing Greg Fisher said. "We had fun and ran a super regatta (at the J. Stewart Walker Sailing Complex). Stefano, Quique and Gerald qualified for nationals with Steven in fifth. It was great sailing for the Cougars."

The coed sailors, who competed at the St. Mary's Fall Intersectional regatta, moved up one spot on Sunday to finish the event with a seventh-place finish with 245 points behind first-place Dartmouth (108 points), second-place U.S. Naval Academy (117 points), third-place MIT (171 points), fourth-place Boston College (179 points), fifth-place Rhode Island (180 points) and sixth-place and host St. Mary's College of Maryland (231 points).

Freshman skipper Nicolas Muller (Fort Pierce, Fla.) and freshmen crew Laura Masterson placed 12th in a head-to-head tiebreaker with Roger Williams in A-Division, while Rio Olympian Paris Henken (Coronado, Calif.) skippered B-Division to a fourth-place finish with junior crew Elizabeth Pemberton (Osterville, Mass.).

Up at Clemson, freshmen Jonathan Noyes, Keely Gregg, Maxwell Williams and Anna Cornetta were greeted at the North Points #3 venue with no breeze and the race was cancelled on Saturday.

The Leukemia Offshore Cup was comprised of three races in very tough conditions. Cougar (Melges 30) placed second, while the Soul (J37) was ninth having to drop out of competition before the last race. The event helped raise funds to support life-saving cancer research for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Jordan Wiggins skippered Cougar along with main trimmer Keenan Hilsinger (Brooklin, Mass.), primary trimmer Sean Hannigan, secondary trimmer Grace Wilkinson (Tampa, Fla.), pit Corinne Durocher (Monroe, Mich.), mast Tristan Nord (Knoxville, Tenn.), bow Howie Meyers (Bellport, N.Y.) and runners Julia Lines (Southampton, Bermuda).

Sophomore Will Hundahl (Marblehead, Mass.) skippered the Soul with main trimmer Michael Brandon, primary trimmer Sarah Wilkinson (Mystic, Conn.), secondary trimmer Sam Tobio, pit Audrey Webb (Marion, Mass.), mast Shane Kilberg, bow Holly Deuterman (Greensboro, N.C.) and squirrel Jamie Craven (Miami, Fla.).

The Cougars will compete in four events this weekend hosting the Cora Alice Offshore Cup on Oct. 1-2 at the J. Stewart Walker Sailing Complex in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., and traveling to the Danmark regatted hosted by the U.S. Coast Guard Academy on Oct. 1-2 in New London, Conn., and the SAISA Women's Singlehanded Championship and SAISA Women's Fall Dinghy events hosted by USF on Oct. 1 and 2 in St. Petersburg, Fla.