The Harvard sailing team wrapped up its fall season with a bang last weekend, enduring the most challenging of conditions to finish near the top of the field at the Atlantic Coast Championships. The women’s team, sailing in Washington, DC, navigated heavy winds to place fourth, while rain, wind, and even snow couldn’t slow the co-ed squad in Geneva, N.Y., as the Crimson finished third.

“We ended on an up note which is really great. I’m feeling pretty confident about what we can accomplish in the spring,” sophomore Grace Charles said.

ATLANTIC COAST CHAMPIONSHIP

Wild weather led to a shortened slate of competition for the co-ed field, but Harvard stayed strong in the five-race event.

“We went in expecting a pretty rough weekend both weather-wise and because the competition was really good,” sophomore Teddy Himler said.

A lack of wind on Saturday prevented any races from occurring, and heavy winds on Sunday caused the Crimson to readjust its lineup, switching out its normal crews for heavy crews Himler and sophomore John Stokes.

“I give them a lot of credit for their performance this weekend,” captain Jon Garrity said.

The sophomore tandem of skipper Alan Palmer and crew Stokes sailed in the A division, placing 11th overall. Meanwhile, skipper Garrity led the way for Harvard in the B division, pacing the boat to a first-place finish. Himler was his crew for the first four races, with Stokes stepping in for the regatta’s final race.

Despite the unpredictable conditions—Sunday brought cold rain, extreme wind, and even snow—it was Garrity’s leadership that kept the Crimson in the event and guided the team to a third-place overall finish.

“Garrity and I were able to put the bow down, we could keep it flat,” Himler said. “It was a very physical contest, and we’re pretty physical guys. It proves that…it’s kind of necessary that we do lift on Mondays and Wednesdays.”

St. Mary’s was named Atlantic Coast Champion, finishing the regatta with 59 points, just 12 points ahead of Harvard.

“It’s a great way to end our season,” Himler said. “Going in we were kind of an embattled team…It was a good way to rest for the winter.”

WOMEN’S ATLANTIC COAST CHAMPIONSHIP

The odds were stacked against the Crimson this fall, with an extremely young team and an early-season injury to veteran junior Liz Powers. But despite everything, Harvard performed admirably at ACC’s, finishing fourth in the 18-team field. “I’m really proud of our finish. Arguably ACC’s for women is a stronger field than nationals ends up being. It’s the most competitive regatta that we sail all fall,” captain Megan Watson said. “The fact that we got fourth place overall in trying conditions is really exciting.”

Although the weather wasn’t quite as wild in the mid-Atlantic, the Crimson still faced heavy winds throughout the weekend.

“On Saturday, it was very windy and wavy, which are conditions we haven’t sailed in at all this year, but they are also conditions very similar to the national venue in San Francisco,” Watson said. “Sunday was windier, and the wind was coming from a strange direction. Wind was blowing holes in the sails, that’s how windy it was.”

But consistency was the name of the game for the Harvard women, as both the A division and B division pairs sailed to fourth place finishes.

Skipper Watson and sophomore crew Meghan Wareham manned the A division while the freshman pair of skipper Emily Lambert and crew Annie DeAngelo competed in the B division.

Lambert and DeAngelo’s performance was particularly noteworthy because it was the most competitive regatta the rookies had ever sailed in.

“This regatta, they were one of the smallest boats weight-wise, which was a disadvantage in the heavy wind…I think they showed a great deal of maturity when they had a bad race or a mistake,” Watson said. “College sailing is about consistency—you need to be able to bounce back. They did a really great job with that.”

Host Georgetown decisively won the regatta. The Crimson finished just seven points behind runner-up Charleston.

It’s a great note for the Harvard team to end its fall season on.

“We were probably ranked around 10th at the beginning of the season, and we’re now ranked fourth in the country,” Watson said. “Last year we knew we were a good team, but we had trouble performing. This year we’ve shown that Harvard is a team that’s going to be in the hunt for winning every regatta.”

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.