The Ram Team Racers finished in a tie for first at the Wood Interconference Team Race at Harvard on the second weekend of their team racing season, but lost the tie breaker to BC on total points. This result was a dramatic improvement over their last place finish at the Sharpe at Brown the week before. The Rams went undefeated in the first round robin, but dropped a pair in the second round to BC and MIT to end the day tied with BC at 12/2. A triple 4 on 4 was scheduled for the second day, but collapsing wind force cancellation of the third round, which set up the possibility of ties. Going into the final race against MIT the Rams were in control of their destiny with 1 less loss than BC. In the super light and fluky conditions the Rams opened up a commanding 1,2 lead only to have a surge of pressure bring MIT back into the mix. The final beat was a furious battle with MIT grabbing the win with a 2,3,5, creating the tie with BC.
In other team racing action the Ram’s second team was 3rd at the Thames Team Race in week one and 4th at the Arctic Circle Team Race in week two. Both respectable results and the first time in recent years that the Rams have been able to compete successfully in multiple team racing events.
The Rams have had poor team racing schedules in recent years which has made it very difficult to move up in the team racing ranks. This year greater depth on the Ram squad has made it possible to have meaningful practices and the team is responding with rapidly improving results. While initially limited to a only low level events, the The Rams were fortunate to add both the Sharpe and Wood events at the last moment. The Wood berth only opened the day before the event!
Coach Whyte has been experimenting with lineups with 8 different skippers vying for the top 3 spots. All American Rachel Bryer and senior Matt Coughlin have secured 2 of the spots with the third still in the balance, but senior Caleb Armstrong, who has just returned to the team for his last semester of eligibility, has a slight edge and he should be improving as he chips away the rust after a long layoff. Juniors Pat Isherwood and Matt Gibbs, sophomore Peter Girard and freshmen Brendan Read and Dakota Northrup are all pushing hard close behind. Hannah Scanlon and Kate Nota, teamed with Rachel and Matt, have those two boats firing on all cylinders. They just keep getting better. Fiona Christie, Jack Hurley, Sarah Morin, Lauren Richards, Lauren Oliveira, Ryan Geib, and Ellis Havelock are handling the remaining jib sheets and giving us ample options to cover all wind conditions.
In other action, the Rams were 5th at the Ice Breaker fleet race at Conn College with Sarah Hermus and Marisa Decollibus at strong 2nd in A.
