University of South Florida
SAISA Open
USF Sailors Have Strong Start to Spring Season
February 28, 2011 | Women's Sailing
TAMPA --- The University of South Florida women's sailing team kick started their spring season earlier this month in Charleston, S.C., competing at the Charleston Open Regatta. The team competed in both the SAISA SP-1 and NP-1 events and the Bulls came home with two second-place finishes in their first outing of the year.
Sophomore Abby Featherstone and senior Hillary Noble both skippered for the "A" division. Senior Darby Smith and freshman Alex Martinez took part as a crew member. The pair of sailors finished just eight points out of first place, behind the home team.
Rachael Silverstein was the only helm for the "B" division, sailing every race, and also finished the race in second place. Crews were Christine Sayler, Kaitlin Dramer, Kim Calnan, Michelle Graham, and Kirsten Hunt.
To view the full results, click here.
USF hosted their first home meet of the season, the USF Women's Intersectional, Feb. 19-20 and finished in third place.
Some of the teams competing at the intersectional were the University of Hawaii, University of California-Irvine, Tulane, Northwestern, College of Charleston, and local rival Eckerd College.
The USF teams of Abby Featherstone/Hillary Noble and Rachael Silverstein /Stephanie Reynolds were just one point out of first at the end of racing on Saturday, but faltered a bit in the tricky light winds on Sunday, ending up third, behind Hawaii and Charleston.
The JV team of Casey Bowles-Jenner, Kirsten Hunt, Christine Sayler, Tiffani Coleman, Kaitlin Kramer, and Michelle Graham ended up 7th.
Full results can be found here.
Just this past weekend, the USF co-ed sailing team traveled to the University of Florida for the Old South Regatta, hosted by UF on Lake Wauberg.
Sailing in the "A" division, junior-transfer William Felder and freshman Alex Martinez sailed well, finishing just three points out of first place.
The "B" division team of junior-transfer Ryan Hager and sophomore Tiffani Coleman, sailing in their first intersectional, finished in seventh place under some tricky conditions. Combining the scores from both divisions, the USF co-ed team finished fourth in the fleet of 10 schools.
The Bulls will be very busy next week as the women's team heads to the College of Charleston for the Women's Intersectional, while the co-ed teams travel to the Graham Hall Team Race event in Annapolis, Md., the Eckerd Intersectional, and the SP-2 Regatta at Rollins University.
