Coed, Women's Sailing Teams Both Receive National Fleet Racing Berths

MEDFORD, MA (May 1, 2024) - Both the Tufts University Coed and Women's Sailing Teams received at-large selections into the 2024 Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Fleet Race National Championships on Tuesday evening. Both Championships will be held on the Charles River later this month, with the Women's event running May 20-23 and the Open regatta from May 24-27.

A total of 36 teams overall will compete at each event, first in a pair of 18-team semifinal regattas. The top nine teams from the semifinals will advance to a two-day final. Eleven women's and coed teams received automatic berths to Nationals from their top finishes at the regional championship regattas. Twenty-five at-large teams for both Championships were determined by a selection committee and announced on the College Sailing Instagram page last night. At-large berths were awarded based upon exemplary performance throughout the entire 2023-24 season.

In the Women's Championship, the Jumbos are one of 14 teams from the deep New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) to earn national berths. Tufts placed 11th at the NEISA Fleet Race Championship on April 20-21 in Maine. On the Coed side, Tufts will be one of 13 schools representing the NEISA at the national championship. The Jumbos were a strong fourth out of 18 teams at the 2024 New England Fleet Race Championship on April 20-21 in Rhode Island.
 
Last year Tufts advanced out of the semifinals in both the Women's and Open Championships. They placed 18th in the Women's finals and eighth in the Open finals. Historically, Tufts has won five Open Fleet Race Championships (1976, 1980, 1981, 1997, 2001) and eight Women's National Championships (1984, 1986, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2003).

MIT and Harvard will host the Championships on the Charles River, with both schools sharing the semifinals. MIT will then host the women's finals out of the Walter C. Wood Sailing Pavilion, and the Harvard Sailing Center will be the site of the Open finals. The ICSA Women's and Open Team Race Nationals were already held at these sites late last month.

With the nearby location, both of Tufts head coach Johnny Norfleet's women's and coed teams could have deep rosters available for the Championships. At the recent Team Race Nationals, starting for Tufts were senior skipper Trevor Davis with senior crew Celia Byrne, sophomore skipper Ben Mueller with junior crew Rees Tindall and freshman skipper Wyatt Bischoff with junior crew Cindy Wang. Senior Connor Rosow and freshman Kurt Stuebe as skippers, and junior Nicolas Echarte, senior Amelia Carlson, junior Will Eykyn and junior Leo Terry as crews were also on site. During the women's spring season, competing for the Jumbos at major regattas were skippers Ella Hubbard, (so.) Sam Jensen (sr.) and Meredith Broadus (jr.), and crews Lilly Ladd (so.), Lilah Parker (so.), Addie Straub (fy.) and Ale Torres (sr). Maisie MacGillivray (jr.) both skippered and crewed this season.