Seahawks take charge in Charleston

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Taking their talents south, Salve Regina was met with challenging conditions at the College of Charleston's Spring Coed Intersectional. Teams gathered from all over the country in the hopes of finding good competition with warmer weather.

Sailing in February is never easy and Charleston proved to be no exception. Sailing in A Division, captain Kyle Carney (New Bedford, Mass.) and freshman Angelina Todaro (Ipswich, Mass.) had a tough first race followed up quickly with a dominating first place finish. Junior Bob Lippincott (Oxford, Md.) and sophomore Baillie Lawless (Rochester, N.Y.), sailing in B Division, answered with a solid fourth place in the following race. Salve Regina continued to put up impressive performances throughout Saturday finishing the day in 6th place behind the home team, the Naval Academy, the Coast Guard Academy among others.

"It was good to see us come out and have a good first day," said assistant coach Michael Komar, "but as everyone knows, you can't win a regatta on the first day, but you can certainly lose it."

Sailors were met with cold and windy conditions on Sunday. Temperatures started at around 35 degrees and warmed slightly throughout the day. To compensate for the strong winds, Lawless moved joined Carney in A Division and junior Chris Jensen (Mountain View, Calif.) sailed with Lippincott. With tough conditions allowing easy chances for teams to climb up in positions, Salve Regina fought to hang onto its sixth place finish.

"Our winter training clearly paid off," Komar commented. "The time our team spent in the boats in Hawaii paid dividends as we finished in front of nationally-ranked sailing schools like Stanford, Georgetown and Old Dominion University."