This weekend marked the official start to the 2011 Fall Season for the Penn Sailing Team. Freshman, Jack Swikart and Junior, Mike Russom traveled to Annapolis, MD to compete in the Mid-Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association’s “Laser South #1” Regatta held September 10-11 2011. The regatta was hosted by the United States Naval Academy and held in Laser Full-Rigs. MAISA Laser South #1 also served as the Carl Van Duyne Memorial Regatta qualifier- the top six finishers move onto the Van Duyne to be held at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (Kings Point) October 8-9 2011.

Despite light and fluky conditions, our sailors persevered. Jack Swikart emerged from his first Intercollegiate regatta with a respectable 8th place finish in the 20-boat field. Over the course of the nine race series, Jack earned three top-three finished (2, 2, 3). Mike Russom was able to remain consistent in the skilled fleet and never finished worse than fifth place. In the end, such consistency paid off as Russom placed 2nd overall (behind Georgetown University’s Chris Barnard ’13). This finish earned Russom a berth in the 2011 Carl Van Duyne Memorial Regatta. The Van Duyne is MAISA’s Singlehanded Nationals Qualifier. Best of luck to Mike in his search to place top 4 at the Van Duyne at King’s Point in a month. Single-handed Nationals will be held in Chicago at Northwestern University in early November.

For full results:
http://scores.collegesailing.info/f11/laser-south/full-scores

This week the team shifts focus back to double-handed sailing and prep for the season’s first double-handed, In-Conference Championship: The MAISA Central #1 at Ocean County College in Tom’s River New Jersey. The top four teams at this Weekend’s MAISA Championship will qualify to compete at the WAR Memorial Trophy to be held at Navy, October 29-30 2011.