The Middlebury Panthers kicked off Halloween Weekend with an exciting and breezy practice at Dartmouth’s Mascoma Lake on Friday. We were treated to gusty NW winds blowing 10-20 straight up and down the lake. Dartmouth, Middlebury, and UVM, part of NEISA’s “Northern Alliance” raced three W4’s before the darkness set in and all three teams continued their travels further south for a weekend of competition.
After a team dinner, the Panthers hit the road, heading to Mass Maritime for the Fall Tourney and Tufts for the Nickerson Trophy, an all Freshman regatta.
From Lexie Lessing:
This Halloweekend, the Midd Sailing first-years headed to Mystic Lake for Tuft’s Nickerson Trophy. Saturday showed some very light and inconsistent conditions, with four races being completed by the end of the day in Larks. Division A (Alex Baskin and Erich Wu) had a top 5 finish in the last race of the first day. Sunday brought heavier winds from 7-12kts and huge puffs for another two sets of races. Less consistent racing on day 2 but good upwind legs by Lexie Lessing and Nick Jaszco in Division B. In the end, both A and B came in 14th in their respective divisions, with Midd finishing 15th overall.
Great job by all of our sailors at Tufts. See the regatta summary here with full scores here.
At Mass Maritime, the sailors battled a brief postponement on land before being treated to four races in each division on Saturday. As predicted, the sailors at Great Herring Pond saw a light and shifty SSW breeze at 5-7. Middlebury and Mass Maritime fought with each other all day, but it was Middlebury who lead after day one through eight excellent races, including three bullets by the Panthers on day one. Ben Brown and Alden Cowap sailed an impressive and very consistent regatta, scoring 4 firsts, 3 seconds, and 1 third!
Sunday featured a stronger and puffier SSW breeze with warmer temperatures. Each team sailed their best sailing of the season throughout Sunday, providing every coach, sailor, and spectator with eight exciting races, featuring numerous extremely close finishes. The final race featured a back-and-forth duel between UNH and Mass Maritime, with MSM beating UNH by just a few inches. Unfortunately, the Panther’s could not take home the top spot at the tourney, but were very pleased with a second overall finish after 16 well-sailed races. Megan Colwell and Sarah Scott sailed a very impressive regatta in shifty conditions. They held their own even in the strongest breezes, winning one race and netting three straight second place finishes. Great job girls!
Big thanks to Diana W from UNH for running the regatta and Andrew Kirk from MSM for hosting.
For more details and final scores, see here.
The team is off to Salve Regina for the Sister Esther in Newport, RI and the No Ringer/Crews regatta at Harvard and MIT this weekend. Wish us luck!