Cougars Finish Eighth at Sperry Women's Nationals

Tuesday, May 21

Newport, R.I.

ALL DAY

College of Charleston

Sperry Women's National Championships

5/24/2019 10:26:00 PM | Sailing

NEWPORT, R.I. --- The fourth-ranked College of Charleston women's sailing team battled heavy winds, a significant chop and dynamic course conditions at the Sperry Women's National Championship on Thursday and Friday that limited the Cougars to an eighth-place finish in the first of three national championship regattas at Sail Newport Sailing Center.

The Cougars finished the two-day championship event with 299 points to finish eighth behind seventh-place Penn's total of 282. Allie Toppa skippered Charleston to a fifth-place showing and 117 points in A-Division and earned ICSA Women's All-American Skipper honors for the second time in her career. She sailed the first 15 races with senior crew Annabel Carrington and the final three with sophomore Emily Essi. The trio collected four top-five finishes including a race victory in rotation six.

Nicole Simon, Liza Toppa and Marian Williams combined to skipper the Cougars to 182 points in B-Division with crews Hannah Kinder, Clare Perry and Elizabeth Mignon respectively. Simon and Kinder picked up a fifth-place finish in the opening rotation while Liza Toppa and Perry's best finish (eighth) came in the sixth race. Williams and Mignon placed sixth in the 11^th rotation.

The Cougars will set sail in the LaserPerformance Team Race National Championship on Saturday to begin the three-day regatta. A 16-team single round-robin first round will open racing followed by a single "championship" round robin featuring the top eight teams from round one. The national champion and second through fourth place will then be determined through a "final four" round robin on Monday. The pairings of Augie Dale and Katie Lounsbury, Toppa and Carrington, and Steven Leuck and Payton Alexander will represent the Cougars in the team race national championship.

A live stream covering at least three-quarters of day one and all of the championship's final two days, along with up-to-the-minute race scores and additional event information is available via the event website at https://2019nationals.collegesailing.org/.