Yale and Harvard Close Fall Season As Top-Ranked

Yale and Harvard close the fall season at the top of the rankings.
2022 Match Race Nationals
Yale sailors dominated the ACC finals, led by Carmen Cowles, Catherine Webb, and Helena Ware in A-Division and Mia Nicolosi, Anisha Arcot, and Ximena Escobar in B-Division. Yale then lwon the 2022 Match Race Nationals to close the Fall season with another big win. Lexi Pline Photography

The Yale women’s team and the Harvard open squad finish the fall season strong to claim the top spots in the ICSA College Sailing Rankings Presented by Sailing World. The 2022 College Sailing fall season is now complete and our final fall rankings recaps the fall season. The rankings are largely compiled from the competitive doublehanded sailing events throughout the country, with consideration for singlehanded and match racing.

Included in this ranking are Women’s and Open ACC Championships, Conference Championships, Singlehanded and Match Race National Championships. The most competitive events in the fall season are the Women’s and Open ACC Championships in which 36 teams compete in two semi-final events from which the top-nine from each move into the ACC Finals. The ACC Championships are similar to the spring national championships with many of the top teams competing against each other and for identifying some early favorites.

ICSA College Sailing Final Fall Rankings
ICSA College Sailing Final Fall Rankings

At Women’s ACC Finals hosted by USMMA, the location of spring nationals, Yale University dominated the event scoring 52 points with second place scoring 104. Yale was led by Carmen Cowles, Catherine Webb, and Helena Ware in A-Division and Mia Nicolosi, Anisha Arcot, and Ximena Escobar in B-Division. The Yale Team sailed an incredibly consistent event with thirteen of the eighteen races in the top 3. Finishing second and third was Dartmouth College and Boston College.

Harvard University claimed the Open ACC Championship hosted by Coast Guard. The Crimson team was led by B-Division winners Justin Callahan and Kennedy Leehealey who sailed an outstanding regatta in varying conditions. Harvard was represented by Lachlain McGranahan and Pomaika’i Ogata in A Division. Dartmouth College finished second with Yale University third.

Singlehanded Nationals were hosted by Old Dominion University. Eighteen sailors were selected to compete in the two championships. In the ILCA 6 championship, Sophia Montgomery from Harvard claimed the championship. Challenging Sophia was Hallie Schiffman from Stanford and Christine Reimer from Bowdoin who finished second and third respectively. At points throughout the regatta, Schiffman and Remier held the lead but in the end, the consistent sailing of Montgomery proved too much. The ILCA 7 championship was won by Chapman Petersen from Stanford University. Petersen began the event slowly but continued to climb the leaderboard. After Race 8, Petersen held on to the top spot until the end of the event to finish 8 points ahead of Leo Boucher from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, a two-time ILCA 7 national champion. Richard McCann from University of Miami finished third.

Open ACC Championship
Harvard University sailors claimed the Open ACC Championship hosted by Coast Guard to boost the squad to the top of the final Fall Open Rankings. Zach Blumenthal

The 2022 Match Race National Championship was hosted by San Diego YC. Yale University defended its 2021 National Championship to win the 2022 Match Race Nationals. Sailing for Yale was Jack Egan, Nicholas Davies, Megan Grimes, and Christophe Chaumont. Yale finished the round robin in first place with eight wins and sailed against Tulane in the quarterfinals. After defeating Tulane 2-1, Yale defeated Georgetown in the semifinals 2-1. In the finals, Yale beat College of Charleston 3-0 to win the championship with Charleston placing second. Brown University defeated Georgetown in the petite finals to finish third.

The ICSA College Sailing Rankings Presented by Sailing World are created by a committee of six regular members and two supplemental members for each ranking. The six regular members are: David Thompson (USCGA), Allison Jolly (USF), Johnny Norfleet (Fordham), Brad Schaupeter (PCCSC), and Charles Higgins (Tulane) with Chris Klevan (Stanford) and Rebecca McElvain (Dartmouth) as supplemental members for the final fall ranking. The next ranking will be in April.