Georgetown sailing delivered a commanding performance at the SMC Open, claiming both first and second place overall in a 16-boat fleet while most East Coast regattas were canceled due to a powerful Nor’easter. Hosted by St. Mary’s College of Maryland on the St. Mary’s River, the event saw the Hoyas enter four teams and walk away with both division titles across 14 races per division.
Hoyas 4 won the regatta outright with 115 points, while Hoyas 1 followed closely in second on 122. Georgetown’s other entries, Hoyas 2 and Hoyas 3, placed ninth with 254 points and 14th with 325 points, respectively. The next best school was Navy’s Midshipmen 1 in third overall with 151 points.
Conditions at the St. Mary’s River venue held up throughout the weekend even as events elsewhere along the eastern seaboard were abandoned. Winds were strong, often gusting into the mid-20 knots, but the sheltered venue ensured racing was never interrupted, even during rain squalls.
In A Division, sophomore Owen Kohut skippering with Sophia Skrivanich crewing in the Hoyas 4 boat posted an outstanding 57 points, finishing 19 points clear of the next competitor. Kohut and Skrivanich were remarkably consistent, never finishing worse than ninth across 14 races, collecting eleven top-five finishes and closing with a race win in race 13.
Freshman Alex Baker and Lauren Montgomery sailed Hoyas 1 to 79 points, tied for third in A Division, recording a race win in race three along with seven top-five finishes. Senior Isabel Massey and senior Helen O’Neill put Hoyas 2 in 11th with 137 points, highlighted by a second-place finish in race 12 and fourths in races 1, 8, and 14. Senior Poshu Ng and freshman Lucy Fleckenstein sailed Hoyas 3 to 188 points and 16th in the division, with a pair of ninths in races two and six as their best results.
Georgetown comfortably won B Division as well. Sophomore Oscar Parzen, crewed by sophomore Irene Lin and Skye Seymour, took Hoyas 1 to a division-leading 43 points, which included three race wins in races two, three, and six. The total was seven points clear of Navy’s leading boat. Lin sailed races 1 through 9 and 12 through 14, while Seymour stepped in for races 10 and 11, with the boat scoring a seventh and a second in her two races.
Sophomore Conrad Cook and sophomore Lia Nafe finished third in B Division for Hoyas 4 on 58 points, with race wins in races one and five. Sophomore Maddie Rode and sophomore Alex Oh were eighth in B for Hoyas 2 on 117 points, winning race 11 outright. Junior James Martino and freshman Kinsleigh Engler sailed Hoyas 3 to 137 points and 10th in the division, with a third in race 11 as their best result.
The standout performances were numerous. Georgetown’s 1-2 overall finish in a 16-boat fleet underscored the program’s depth. Hoyas 4 won A Division while Hoyas 1 won B Division, meaning no other school captured a division title. Notably, Hoyas 4 placed in the top three in both divisions, with Kohut and Skrivanich taking first in A and Cook and Nafe earning third in B. Cook and Nafe were the only boat in the fleet to finish inside the top three on both sides of the scoresheet, which is why the winning margin over their own teammates was just seven points.
Across the weekend, Georgetown won eight individual races, including three to Parzen and Lin, two to Cook and Nafe, and one apiece to Kohut and Skrivanich, Baker and Montgomery, and Rode and Oh. Complete results are available at scores.collegesailing.org.
