USF Athletics

Bulls Sailing Leads SAISA South Rankings After Strong Opening

September 22, 2021

TAMPA, Sept. 22, 2021 – The USF sailing team stands atop the South Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association (SAISA) South conference rankings following the Bulls opening competition of the season.
 
USF leads Jacksonville University and Florida State among the top three South teams, while Georgia Tech heads the North followed by The Citadel and NC State.
 
The Bulls performed well at the SAISA Open hosted by the College of Charleston. The event brought teams from the entire SAISA conference together to kick off the "North Points" and "South Points" regatta series of the 2021-2022 season. 
 
Fifteen coed SAISA teams attended the event, with USF, Jacksonville, and College of Charleston fielding Women's teams in addition to coed squads, making for eighteen teams on the starting line. 
 
In the final scoring, the USF women placed sixth overall and were the second placed women's team in the event, narrowly beating out the CofC women's team and bested only by the JU women's team.
 
Sailing for the USF women's team were Carolina Rovira crewing with Emma Shakespeare driving in A Division and Maggie McLauchlin crewing with Kay Brunsvold and Heidi Hicks driving in B Division.
 
The racing gave USF freshmen and sophomore sailors an excellent, and sometimes eye-opening, introduction to the fickle winds and strong currents present in the Cooper River and on Crab Bank. 
 
Ten races were sailed Saturday (the daily maximum) and six on Sunday, with shifty breezes from 4-10 knots veering over the course on both days.
 
After a sharp introduction to the strong currents of the Cooper River, Rovira and Shakespeare quickly worked their way up the learning curve with a convincing win in race 4.  When the fleet commenced racing on Crab Bank on Sunday morning, McLauchlin and Brunsvold clicked into the changeable conditions and posted a string of top three scores with a race win in race 14.
 
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