Sailing champs

Jumbo women edge Harvard for New England title

The Tufts women’s sailing team won its first New England Championship since 2001, slipping past Harvard for the Reed Trophy on April 22 off New London, Conn. As a result, the women qualified to compete at the 2007 Intercollegiate Sailing Association National Championships, which will be hosted by Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., May 23-25.

At the England Championship, Tufts got a stellar performance from its A boat of junior skipper Kaity Storck and junior crew Lyndsey Gibbons-Neff. In 10 races with 13 boats in each, the Jumbo pair finished in the top five nine times. They took second in three races. Their overall score of 38 was 15 better than second-place Harvard’s 53 score in the A Division.

Tufts will be one of 18 teams challenging for the national championship later this month. They are the first of five qualifiers from New England, including Harvard, Boston College, Dartmouth and Boston University. Tufts has won eight women’s national championships, most recently in 2003.

This story ran in the Tufts Journal in May 2007.