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JU Sailing success: From 20th to 4th in one year!

The JU Sailing team members enjoy a post-regatta dinner and celebrate their fourth-place conference finish in Charleston, S.C.

By Jon Faudree/JU Head Sailing Coach

The JU Sailing team finished the 2012 fall regular season ranked 20th out of the 27 teams in the South Atlantic Interscholastic Sailing Association (SAISA). Our goal for the 2013 fall season has been to finish in the top five.

This past weekend, the team headed to the College of Charleston to take on the top 12 SAISA teams that qualified for the conference championships. Once again, the team would start a full roster of freshman. Ian Ikeda and Anna Palmer led the charge in B Division with a very consistent string of races, never finishing worse than fifth to place second overall.

Danny Lawless and Mara Stroble-Lanka started the day together before Hannah Knighton switched in for Stroble-Lanka for the final four races. The team had a tough fight in A Division, where six of the seven boats that finished ahead had gone to the national semifinals last spring.

The combined effort was enough to secure the JU Sailing team a fourth-place overall finish in the SAISA Fall Dinghy Championship.

JU's Sailing team

As a coach, I couldn’t be more excited about the progress of the team this fall and the team’s improvement from 20th to fourth in just one year; it has only served to motivate me more. This team is drawing a lot of attention to JU in the sailing world, and the students have represented the school with great class both on and off the water.

Special thanks to senior captain Jenna Spangler for helping organize the trip, and freshmen Alex Steo and Victoria Caba for their help with on shore logistics.

This weekend, the team heads back to Charleston for our final event of the fall for the SAISA/MAISA Regatta; were the top teams from the SAISA conference take on the teams to the north in MAISA (Mid-Atlantic Inter-colligate Sailing Association).

Click here to see the complete scores.

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