At this weekend's Reed Trophy women's sailing event at the Dartmouth course, a difference of one point sent one team packing and the other team onward to the national championship.

The top five teams at the two-day, ten-race event qualified for nationals, and Harvard edged MIT for the fifth spot by only one point. The Crimson was down by one point going into the last two races in the B division, but the heroic efforts of captain Cori Ermler and junior Sarah Levin reversed the points margin in Harvard's favor.

Harvard's finishes of fourth and fifth in the last two races gave it the win thanks to MIT's ninth-and second-place finishes.

At the Regis Cup last weekend, Harvard had turned in a stellar second-place finish on the same course. But Saturday, a light 3-5 knot breeze made steering and maintaining speed difficult. Yesterday, the gusts picked up to 8-10 knots, and the Harvard sailors seized upon more favorable wind speeds.

Sailing in Division A were freshman Margaret Gill and Lauren Toretta, who were also crucial to the fifth place effort.

"We were overjoyed when the final results came back," Ermler said. "MIT was right down to the wire, and there were five other equally competitive teams alongside them."

The New England Division is regarded as the most competitive division of the seven sections in the NCAA. If Harvard can compete with the best in New England, as it has demonstrated this weekend, it has the potential to do well at nationals, which will be held at the end of May at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla.

"We have a lot of hard work ahead of us in these weeks of preparation, and we just want to keep a consistent focus each day at practice," Ermler said.

In preparation for nationals, the women's team will commute to Cape Cod, where it can borrow the 420-model boats that will be raced at nationals.

The co-ed team was also in action this weekend. Two boats sailed at the URI course in the Moody Trophy regatta. In the two-division, 14-race event, Harvard finished second to B.U. in the 14-team field. The race was a prelude to next week's New England Championships, which will be held on the same course.

In Division A, captain Pete Strothman and senior Becky Rosen raced their double-handed boat to a fourth place finish overall. In Division B, junior Christian Taubman and senior Brian Fox finished third. The combined A and B scores gave the Crimson second place.

"We were quite happy with the results, but next week these teams will be boating their top line-ups, and it will be much tougher to qualify," Fox said.

The top four finishers at the New England Championships qualify for nationals, which will take place after the women's nationals in May.

Next week will be a battle for those top four spots. Tufts, BU and Dartmouth are all formidable contenders, and MIT, Connecticut College and URI have all had strong results in the last few regattas.

"We know what we have to do if we want to qualify," Fox said. "Previous Harvard teams have come up short in the past years, and we just want to give our best performance."

On Saturday, other members of the co-ed team traveled to the MIT course for the Gieger Trophy, the largest college sailing regatta staged this year. In the five division contest held between MIT, Harvard, Dartmouth, BC and Tufts, the Crimson sailed to a second place overall finish.

Yesterday, Harvard hosted the Varsity-Freshman Regatta against a host of teams including Dartmouth, B.U., B.C., Tufts and Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

The home team came away with resounding victories in both divisions. In the eight-race varsity event, junior Pete Meyerdirk and freshman Matt Ocwieja won, and Sean Doyle and Marah Stith captured first in the freshman division.

"We finished consistently at the top of the field, and it was nice to come away with the win," Doyle said.