The 2014 Nationals Squad From Left: Chris Cyr, Liz Wallace, Karinne Smolenyak, Tom Etheridge, Ryan Seago,
Scott Ismail, Will Cyr, Alex Ramos, Coach Mr. Ramos, and Emily Gazall
On Friday May 30th, 9 Michigan Sailors traveled
to St Mary’s College on the southern tip of Maryland for the 2014 College
Sailing National Championship. The team
was fresh off a several weeks of practice in Ann Arbor and a few days of
sparing with University of Wisconsin in Madison, and was excited to start
racing. The first three days of the week
long event were the Team Race Championship to be sailed by Alex Ramos, Will
Cyr, Ryan Seago, Karinne Smolenyak, Scott Ismail, and Liz Wallace with Tom
Etheridge, Chris Cyr, and Emily Gazall serving as alternates/coaches. We started the day with a race against Tufts
University and much to the surprise of the Tufts coach (but not to us) the race
came down to the last 20 boat lengths with the “Jumbos” just barely getting the
win. After a quick rotation, we were
right into another race, this time against last year’s runners up St Mary’s
College. It was another exciting race
but the Home Team took away the win.
Next up was College of Charleston.
We managed to push 2 of their 3 boats over early giving us a clear 1-2
at the windward mark. However, as the
wind started to die out the Charleston boats managed to catch up and after a
very strenuous final leg they had captured the come from behind win. Following another devastatingly close loss,
this time to Rodger Williams, we were in desperate need for some wins. Just when we needed them most, we rattled off
a streak of wins against ODU, Santa Barbara, Washington, and Texas A&M
Galveston and just like that, midway through the first round, we were only a
win or two out of qualifying for the second round but had yet to face our
toughest tests. This win streak was
followed by a series of incredibly close and excited races against Yale, Navy,
USF, Georgetown, BC, and Stanford that
unfortunately ended in losses.
Throughout the entire event we were turning the heads of coaches,
sailors, and especially the commentators for the live online broadcast. They fell in love with the team and every
race they said “and here’s Michigan again in a surprisingly tight race.” Overall we sailed a great regatta and were
excited to move into Fleet Racing Nationals.
After a day and a half off we awoke bright and early
Tuesday, June 3rd, to claim our spot along the St Mary’s River for
Coed Dinghy National Semifinal. It was
critical we get there early as there were 36 teams and well over 300 sailors at
the event. Sailing in A Division was
Alex Ramos back with his fleet racing crew Karinne Smolenyak and in B Division
was Ryan Seago with his faithful crew Liz Wallace. In order to qualify for the National
Championship Regatta we had to be in the top 9 in our semifinal, a tall task as
the best sailors in the country were at the event. Conditions were the classic Chesapeake Bay
summer of 0-10 knots dying until the seabreeze filled in around 2pm; a stark
contrast from the consistent 5-10 knots at Team Race only a few days before. Both days of semis were riddled with wind
delays and the team was forced to find creative ways to entertain
themselves. Some chose to read or nap in
the shade, others explored the campus (and creepy graveyard), but finally a
great Midwest wiffleball duel developed on a field behind the sailing center
between Michigan and Wisconsin.
Wisconsin walked away the victors behind a strong pitching performance
from Senior Mike Lee as Michigan tragically left numerous runners in scoring
position. Back on the water, after some scattered
racing we managed to pull of some fairly consistent results putting us only a
few points out of 9th with only an hour and a half left of racing on
the last day of semifinals. There would
just enough time for 1, or possibly 2, A
and B races. It was crunch time for the
squad and rather than buckle under the immense pressure, both boats sailed
incredibly clutch races and the last race, which only barely made the start
deadline, came down to essentially a match race with who else but the
University of Wisconsin. After a nerve
racking final race (only one of us could move on to Nationals) Mike Lee of
Wisco replicated his incredible pitching performance and narrowly out dueled
Ryan Seago. Although only 6 races were
sailed, we ended up 1 point out of qualifying for Nationals (although the
scores online do not necessarily reflect this due to an unfortunate collision for
which we were penalized). At the end of the day, we had
an awesome week at Nationals and look forward to competing next year at
Brown! A huge thanks to our hosts for
the week the Mould Family and Patrick Aylward, our volunteer coach Mr. Ramos,
and of course our outgoing seniors Scott Ismail, Will Cyr, Karinne Smolenyak
and our kind of seniors Ryan Seago and Liz Wallace who will be back for one
more season as they finish up their degrees!
Go Blue!
-Tom Etheridge '16
