2005-06 College Sailing Preseason Prognostications

NEISA
Since the turn of the century, all four New England Ivies, starting with Harvard, and including Dartmouth, Yale, and Brown, have ramped up their programs with great recruiting and multiple coaches. Boston College has joined the elite with an abundance of talent and Tufts, though not as strong as in the '90s, still has a big team with great depth. MIT has a small team with excellent coaching and talent at the top. Roger Williams has joined the next tier along with Connecticut, Coast Guard, Rhode Island, and Boston University. Looking to join them in the future is Vermont, Bowdoin, Salve Regina and Mass. Maritime. At press time, very few teams revealed their recruits, but a few freshmen are known.

Harvard returns both A & B coed and women's A skippers (and singlehanded stars) Clay Johnson, Vince Porter, and Sloan Devlin and immediately becomes a favorite to win their sixth straight Fowle Trophy for combined national championships. They graduated champion Genny Tulloch (in three years) and three top crews but bring in Roberta Steele, Megan Watson and Andrew Flynn as freshmen.

Dartmouth returns their best dinghy skipper, Eric Storck, who will be joined by Ben Sampson, Emily East, Killarny Loufek, the versatile Jimmy Attridge, and sloop experts Eric and Karl Johnson.

Yale should be a favorite in Women's with Molly Carapiet and Emily Hill (champions in '04) despite losing super crew Jenn Hoyle. Their coed team lost probable future Olympian Stu McNay and another super crew Meredith Killion. They retain plenty of talent however with Zach Brown, Phil Stemler, Matt Barry, Sarah Himmelfarb, Courtney Cox and Kendra Emhiser.

Brown graduated Pat Rynne, Anne Davidson and Louise Sherman but returns Charlie Enright, Rip Hale, Arlene Chung, Katie Lovelace, Christina Starr, and Andrew Perry.

Tufts lost only Lindsay Shanholt and returns thirteen senior skippers including Dave Siegal, Zander Kirkland, Jeff Cruise, Brendan Shattuck, Bryan Prior, and Tommy Leach. Anna Martin leads a young corps of crews while Michael Easton, Kaity Storck, and Emily Randall add depth among the younger sailors. Baker Potts and Peter Bermudez lead the incoming class that will enjoy practicing in an expanded fleet of new Larks.

Boston College will see the greatest turnover. Three-time All-American Joy McDougall graduated along with four other great crews and four terrific skippers, Ben Gent, Jeff Bonnani, Frank Ustach, and Julie Wilson. As such, BC will likely not repeat in the season opening Harry Anderson trophy but they likely have the best recruiting class of any. Adam Roberts, winner of all kinds of high school and youth championships leads a freshmen class that includes Parker Dwyer, Brian Kamilar, crews Allie Nagle, Lauren Giloolly and others. Roberts may start immediately along with sophomore Reed Johnson while the BC women will feature much improved Maura Winston and Youth champion Leigh Kempton.

MIT lost a class act with J.M. Modisette but they will have some young talent led by sophomore Jack Field and freshman Brooks Reed.

Connecticut College graduated Amanda Clark and Kate Bogart from their women's team and several good skippers that dominated local regattas for years. Henry Maxwell is back along with Emily Whipple, Kit Will, Dave Meleney, and Charlie Struse.

Roger Williams will continue to rise with Drew Hamilton, Andy Goetting, and some good freshmen despite the loss of Bobby Koar.

Coast Guard sports some young talent with Rob Gorman and Rob Greenough (high school teammates from Marblehead) and a new coach, Mark Zagol who moves over from Kings Point.

Rhode Island also has a new coach with Joey Mello who is eager to get started with Matt Kastan, Craig Thompson, and Jeff Kitteridge. Graduated is Morgan Paxhia and a few other starters.

Vermont's young coach Justin Assad has recruited 23 freshmen sailors including Tyler Baeder and Theo Ingram. They'll be young with sophs Matt Clark, Clive Ruekert, Laura Eichorn, Gabby McCoy, and Kim Murtha. They'll miss the veteran leadership of graduated Kate Massey.

Mass. Maritime lost Tim Corbet but returns Pete Schwebach and others.

Bowdoin lost their part-time coach Tom Sitzmann to North Sails in Annapolis but they should do okay with Mark Dineen, Rob Parrish, and Frank Pizzo.

A team of the future could be Salve Regina. They lost Jared Wallin but coach John Ingalls is recruiting and raising funds for 20 new 420s.
 
MCSA
The teams of the Midwest are all club teams. There are no full time coaches which means almost no recruiting. As such, some of the home grown talent gets recruited out to the East or West Coasts. There is recruiting from within the enormous student bodies of the big state schools Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Other teams like Northwestern, Perdue, Ohio, and others have some talent in odd years.

With every team competing on equal ground, there are great regattas in MCSA every year. Women skippers make up a large percentage of the skippers at coed regattas and as many as four teams could be ranked this year in the women's national polls.

The fall is the best season for racing in the Midwest, especially early on with regattas like the Fall Fury at Wisconsin, Boiler Cup at Purdue, Stuefert Team Race at Minnesota, Cary Price at Michigan, Davis Cup at Iowa, Cedarfest at Michigan State, and the Harken clinic at Wisconsin. There are also championships in the fall for singles and sloops but the granddaddy of all college regattas in the Midwest is the Timme Angsten Memorial over Thanksgiving weekend in Chicago.

Sophomore Jessica Haverstock and Mark Dunsworth return for MCSA champions, Minnesota.

Michigan returns Matt Vanderpool, Christina Falcone, Caitlin Delphin and Dave Ellis.

Though Anne Porter graduated from Wisconsin, Liz Prounge, Matt Schmidt, Anna
Bargren, Patti Schmidt, and Aaron Mann are all back.

St. Thomas returns Parker Zanios, Dan Shinozaki and Lindsay Allen.

Northwestern graduated Brian Sabina and Aaron Lasher but returns Brandon Keao.

Ohio State lost Adam Dunki-Jacobs but returns Conor Hawkins.

Ohio University returns their leader Karl Felger.

Indiana lost HJ Richardson but returns Jason Hubbard.

Purdue returns Carlos Abisambra and Charlie Rush.

Notre Dame returns Tim Ray.

Michigan State lost Mary Vogel.

Both Catherine Muller and Casey Williams return for Marquette.


MAISA
The competition should be fierce in MAISA this season as the coed and women's top spots are a wide open competition.

Defending Coed and Team Racing National Champions Hobart and William Smith Colleges will have a hard time replacing John Storck and Lee Sackett. An All-American and winner of B division at Nationals, Trevor Moore will take over in A division. B division for Hobart looks to be up for grabs, but the early favorites are Jay Mills and Brian Clancy. Hobart will rely heavily on All-American crews Augusta Nadler and Mandee Markee to help keep B division competitive and if all goes as planned Hobart will be a favorite to win Coed Nationals again. The HWS women's team lost Emlie Barkow to graduation but return Kate Brush. Augusta Nadler may also see time skippering for the women's team.

St. Mary's is as deep as ever this year and figures to rebound from a disappointing performance and nationals. The Seahawks will miss the leadership of top crew Paige Hannon due to graduation. Hoping to fill the role will be Hilary Wiech (team co-captain) who will be sailing with a new skipper for the fall season while traditional partner, Justin Law (fresh from the BUSA tour) will spend the fall season on a college exchange in Australia. Keeping the world in balance, Australian Jeremy Wilmot will come to SMC as a freshman. Wilmot is one of the best junior sailors in Australia. The starting spots for the fall will be up for grabs as juniors Andrew Watters, Aubrey Mayer, Alex Steele, John Howell, Marc Sorbo, and sophomores John Loe and Adrienne Patterson will all get a chance to sail big regattas. The women's team will be strong again led by returning Honorable Mention Women's All-American Patterson and Jenny Gervais and Katie Smith. The St. Mary's women's squad should be a real contender to win Nationals.

Georgetown will once again look to three time All-American Andrew Campbell to help lead the team back to Nationals. Andrew will be attempting to win his third single-handed National Championship this fall. While Andrew is sailing lasers the coed team will look to sophomore Chris Behm to start in A division. Look for senior Ed du Moulin to get a lot of time in B division along with sophomore Zack Kavanaugh. The Hoya women's team will be very strong this year as they return Honorable Mention Women's All-Americans Derby Anderson and Blaire Herron. Fresh off a third place performance at last years Nationals the Hoya women will be a favorite to win it all this year. Senior Jackie Schmitz and Freshman Emily Babbitt will also get a chance to start for the Hoyas this year. The Hoyas loss of All-American crews Dorothée Bergin and Barbara Hall will hurt but the Hoyas return a strong group of crews headlined by All-American Junior Caroline LaMotte.

The big news out of Kings Point is another coaching change. This time Assistant Coach Matt Allen takes over so KP should pick up right where they left off last spring. KP returns seniors Graham Merganthaler and Adian Black who spent last semester at sea.. Look for Merganthaler to lead the dinghy team this year after sailing impressively starting A-division last fall. Joining Graham and Adrian back from sea is a solid core of crews including Tim Cain, Greer Ferguson, and Emily Gardner whose experience and athleticism should help them standout this year. Juniors Andrew Bercovici and crew Scott Gilmore are two sailors to watch as they will make a big impact in the dinghies this fall before setting sail through next spring. Sophomore skippers Chris Alexander, Jimmy Givens and Chris Branning will bolster the dinghy team as well as lead the charge in single-handed competition for the Mariners. Allison Davis will once again head up the women's team in both singlehanded and dinghy competition along with crew Brittany Rossi. New to the team are plebes Brett Baker and Steven Holm who will make an early impact on the water.

Fresh off an impressive 2004/2005 campaign Old Dominion University will have big shoes to fill with the graduation of superstar Anna Tunnicliffe and coed starter Bill Berg. Taking over their roles will be senior Charles Higgins and junior Cara DiSanti. Both Cara and Charles went in off the bench at Nationals for their B division counterparts and sailed very well. Mo Castruccio, Mike Collins, and David Tunnicliffe are all returning and will look at starting positions as helmsmen. Returning crews Emily Bartlett, Mike Smith, Jenn Adams, and Ryan Kozoriz will join them in the front of the boat. The ODU squad will be helped out by newcomers Mikey Brown, Jacci Finney, and Gillen Elder. One person to watch for the monarchs is Bobby Noonan who transferred from Kings Point. Noonan will be a great addition to both singlehanded and doublehanded divisions for the Monarchs.

The Naval Academy Sailing Team is returning almost its entire team, losing only one senior (Steve Gay). The team is lead by senior Laser sailor and team captain Chuck Fulmer. All co-ed starting skippers (John Keith, Katie Whitman, Ian Gill, Garth Fasano, Dave Parker, Rob Ramirez, and Cullen Shaughnessy) return this season. All crews are returning minus Junior Lauren Sutehall, who is doing an exchange program with the Air Force Academy during the Fall. The Navy women's team returns all its players that were at last year's National Championship (skippers junior Katie Whitman and Sophomore Charlotte Hill). Look for them to be ranked in the top 5 most of the year. Navy brings in a wealth of talent in their freshman class including Michael Curran (FL), Mac Fletcher (FL), Kira Devers-Jones (FL), Andrew Vann (FL), Andrew Hotchkiss (NY), Paul Tucker(NY), and Trisha Kutkiewicz (NY). The coaching staff remains the same, with Gavin O'Hare as Head Coach and MollyO'Bryan and LT Grant Garcia ('00 grad of the Academy) returning as assistants.

Washington College will try again this year to make Nationals and they look like they have the talent to make it happen. Colin Robertson has graduated but Carl Horrocks returns along with sophomores Alex Hood and Parker Mitchell. The Washington College women's team will be led by junior Vanessa Anderson.

Other teams who will be on the rise in MAISA include Columbia with Will Hubbard, Chris Fleming, Weston Friedman and Katie Simon and Fordham who returns a strong group of sailors including Nate Powell and Katie Murphy.


SAISA
SAISA again looks like a three-horse race but there could be a shake up at the top as both Eckerd and South Florida seem poised to knock off perennial champ College of Charleston.

The College of Charleston lost a lot of talent to graduation, including Women's All-American team members Sara Wilkinson and Anne Bowen, but return AA senior, Alana O'Reilly and AA crew senior Suzy Lintern to that team. Charleston completes the "O'Reilly Factor" with brother junior Russ O'Reilly on the Coed team. Also returning are junior Brendan Healy, sophomore red shirt Chris Lash, and senior Jamie Kimball. Incoming freshmen should help with Andrea Savage and Alllie Trost from Grosse Point, MI, and Chris William from the San Francisco Bay area.

The South Florida women's team returns coach Allison Jolly and skippers Kristen Herman and Abby Ethington. The big news though is the addition of National and International Laser Radial Champion Paige Railey. Paige will sail only singlehanded events as she prepares for the 2008 Olympics but she is clearly the favorite to win the Women's Singlehanded National Championship. The South Florida coed team is still looking for a new coach but the team is still in good hands with skippers Kevin Reali and Andrew Blom returning.

At Eckerd College new coach Jim Terkelson will have a very strong squad to work with. Eckerd will be relying on the strength of senior leadership on both their co-ed and women's team. Having only graduated two seniors in '05, (Maddy Eustis and Kristen Mitchell) the Tritons will be welcoming back a large portion of the team which competed at ICSA Nationals in Austin. Kellen Bernard, Peter Stanton, DJ Driscoll, and Lindsey Nahmias return as drivers and crews Leo Calzadilla and Allison Cribbs return to anchor the team. All of these sailors were part of the Tritons team that finished ranked 12th in Women's sailing and a respectable 10th place finish at the ICSA Team Race Nationals.

In addition, Eckerd has several sophomores and juniors who have competed in major events or will be looking to gain some valuable experience. Sophomore Sarah Swan and junior Tina Irwin are crews with top level experience while juniors Zach Mason and Justin Van Deinse are drivers looking to edge their way up the depth chart.

 
SEISA
SEISA is on the rise this year led by the team from Texas A&M University at Galveston. The Sea Aggies will field a strong coed team led by Sloop National Champion and Honorable Mention All-American Scott Stanton.

The University of South Alabama will also be a team to watch this season. The University of South Alabama Sailing Team will have all of last season's skippers returning. Team Captain Karl Kleinschrodt will sit out for the fall season, but will return in the spring. Co-captains Seth McGonigal and Paul Kleinschrodt will lead the team for the fall season, with super-crews Ashley Hall and Ashleigh Turner skippering for USA's women's team. USA's new fleet of 8 FJs will help the Jaguars tremendously this year. Some continued coaching assistance from several local College of Charleston grads will keep the USA team sailing fast.

Other teams to keep an eye on are Tulane which returns Pat Hitchens and Corinne Libby and the University of Texas.


PCIYRA
University of Hawaii will have Bryan Lake (winner of A division at three Dinghy Nationals) for his final full year (of sailing) combined with other proven senior talent (Joey Pasquali, Scott Decurtis, Eric Oppen and Matt Stine {Spring Only}) should make this team competitive with any in the country and they should have very intense practices. Both the Coed and Women's teams will miss the talent and leadership of Jennifer Warnock (Lake's Crew and A Division Women's Skipper) but ample resources remain including some very strong Women's sailors in Tinja Anderson-Mitterling, Shandy Buckley, and Crystal Bronte.

With only two USC seniors graduating (Harrison Turner and Kyrstin Munson) USC returns 2005 College Sailor of the Year Mikee Anderson-Mitterling, All American Crews Vanessa Decollibus and Melanie Roberts and a host of other talented skippers and crews. It is time for top junior skipper Greg Helias to assume an important supporting leadership role. Several new arrivals, including High School multiple champion Parker Shinn (coming in Spring), should strengthen and grow the team. This strength combined with excellent district competition (Hawaii, Stanford, UC Irvine and others) should boost the Trojans as a top national contender.

Stanford returns almost the entire team this year, only losing skipper Peter Deming and crews Lucy Horton and Julie Pitts to graduation. Assistant Coach Brent Harrill has moved on and is replaced by two-time All-American John Pearce (Hobart '04). As Assistant Coach, Pearce helped lead Hobart/Wm Smith to two National Championships in '05 (Team Racing and Coed Dinghies). Brian Haines returns from a year off, and joins Emery Wager in the junior class. Combined with sophomore Eddie Conrad and new recruit TJ Tullo of New Jersey this team should be very strong.

With no one graduating from Stanford's very solid women's team expect senior Liz Rountree, junior Caroline Young, sophomore Evan Brown and new freshman Taylor Grimes of Newport Beach to lead one of the best women's teams in the nation.

UC Irvine had six major players graduate (Lauren Maxam, Emily Hemberger, Kelsey Cochran, Carlos Roberts, Barrett Sprout, and Juliana Long) and will have a different look this year. However the maturing talent of HM All-American Frank Tybor, Mike Brown, Whitney Loufek, Payson Infelise, and William Pochereva combined with some new freshmen should keep this team in the hunt.

UC San Diego, led by team captains Heather Martinelli (Varsity A Crew, Women's A Skipper) and John Frank, has a strong group of young sailors. Losing A division skipper Sean Anderson, who will be away for his senior year studying in Northern Africa will be felt, but skipper Ryan Lawrence and crew Ashley Rose and skipper Nick Ward and crew Alexis Steiner are hungry for the vacant top spot. Jeff Simon who was away much of last year is also in the mix and will complete for one of the two varsity spots.

Last year the team purchased a brand new CFJ and some new sails. They now have 4 Vanguard FJ's that are less than 4 years old and a total of 8 boats. Doug Turnbull (Princeton Undergrad and now UCSD Grad Student) will again be helping the team out on the water as a volunteer coach. Off the water, Chris Nilsen and other former team members are working hard to establish an alumnae committee. Their first goal is to procure funds for a paid part-time coaching position.

Cal Maritime Academy will be focusing attention on their Offshore Sailing Team this fall with returning students Piet Van Os and Andrew Goodman in the back of the boat. In addition to racing on San Francisco Bay the team plans to attend several east coast regattas including the Shields Trophy, Intrepid Cup and Kennedy Cup at the USNA. The Keelhauler Dingy Team led by seniors Trevor Bozina and Daniel Spath will compete in PCIYRA events and new freshman Paige Johnston will likely represent CMA at the Singlehanded PCCs in Hawaii.

San Jose State is working their two main Skippers Eric Colton and Eric Stackpole hard, growing the team, developing good crews and increasing the number of races they attend are the main goals.

NWICSA
This year University of Washington only graduated one sailor, top skipper Zak Malbin. A division skipper Brendan Fahey is taking a break from double-handed sailing in the Fall to focus on Laser sailing, giving other skippers a chance to step up. All of their women are returning. With all the returning talent and several incoming freshmen from the local sailing scene this should be a good year for the Huskies who are now sailing full time at Sail Sandpoint on Lake Washington where they have access to a new fleet of FJ's and SSP coaches.

Lewis and Clark Sailing returns the entire team and team captains Kyle Eaton ('06) and Alan Worf ('07) plan to continue the momentum of Lewis and Clark's strong return to northwest sailing. Junior MG Weber will lead the L&C Women's team this year and looks forward to Junior Karen Coffman's return from her semester in NYC. The team has heard from a number of incoming freshman including Tabor graduate Alan Planter and Antilles sailor Callie Burks.

University of Oregon has 2 new boats for the new season and will be sailing on Dexter Reservoir for the fall until they begin refilling their home lake, Fern Ridge Lake, this winter after a year of repairs on the dam. This is good news as the original projections for completion of the repairs was 5 to 7 years.

Portland State's new coach is former USC National Champion Bill Symes, who will be replacing Kerry Poe as head coach for the upcoming year. The PSU team lost one of its long-time most valuable players this spring when three-time All-Northwest sailor and varsity coed skipper Anika Olsen sailed her final term of eligibility. However, returning sailors include A division varsity skipper and two-time All-Northwest award winner Jeff Causey who has played a pivotal role in keeping the PSU team high in its conference rankings and is expected step it up a notch for his fourth and final year.

PSU welcomes two major recruits for the fall season including Kevin Stravers, protege of Olympic Sailing Team Finn sailor Darrell Peck and Alex Bettencourt, who hails from Martha's Vineyard. The team looks forward to spring season where Alex's team racing specialty may help land the team, who finished a close second at qualifiers this year, a berth at nationals.

Western Washington University sailor Marc Snyder was the only graduate this past season. The women's team is becoming even stronger with both returning skippers, Jamie Albert and Lisa Marsaudon, recognized as Honorable Mention 2005 All-Northwest Women's Skippers. The returning talent combined with a few new freshman should help strengthen the co-ed team.