Last weekend, Jack Swikart, Mac Agnese, Pati Andrade, Catie Hopkins and myself travelled to St. Mary’s for the SMC Fall Intersectional. Eighteen teams participated from all different conferences, many schools travelling several hours to attend this regatta. We knew this was going to be a tough one, but we went to bed at the La Quinta Hotel on Friday night feeling positive and ready.

We woke up Saturday morning excited for the day of sailing ahead. We were the first team to arrive at the St. Mary’s boathouse, and we took advantage of this time by getting into the competitive mindset and making sure we were all ready for the coming races. Mac and Catie started off in B Division in 420’s while Jack and Pati began the day doing what they do best: A Division FJ’s. It immediately became clear that conditions were tough, the northwesterly breeze coming off the land made finicky puffs and hard-to-predict shifts the name of the game. Despite these hardships, Mac and Jack made the best of it and finished out Friday in ninth place. We ended the day feeling good about having broken the top ten and celebrated with a Bloomin’ Onion at Outback Steakhouse.

The next morning, we felt ready for the six races left in the regatta. Sunday was a bit more difficult, however, the breeze was as tough as ever and a couple of races didn’t go our way. We ended up in twelfth overall and headed back to Philadelphia knowing we had seen tough competition. We were, however, excited to continue our hard work and feel very good going into the next few weekends.

Full results can be found here: http://scores.collegesailing.org/f13/smc-fall-interconference/

Meaghan Harding ‘16