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The No. 1 Harvard Sailing Team clinched the title of National Champions in the 2025 Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association Open Team Race and secured a third place finish in the ICSA Women’s Team Race this past weekend.

ICSA Open Team Race National Championship

No. 1 Harvard Sailing overcame inclement weather conditions to secure the title of National Champions Saturday. The field finished the Round of 16 and a majority of Round of 8 on Friday, with rain forecasted for the remainder of the weekend.

In the initial races of the ISCA Open Team Race, the Crimson defeated Stanford (1-3-4), Brown (1-2-6), and Dartmouth (1-2-4). These early victories for Harvard set them up for a race with a familiar Ivy rival: Yale. The Crimson’s early finish of 1-3-5 over the Bulldogs created a two-win gap. Harvard used the momentum to confidently advance into final four racing Saturday.

The Crimson’s 19-3 win over Roger Williams cemented its place within the final four and established its dominance upon the leaderboard. The final four regatta was composed of four fleets: Harvard, Yale, Roger Williams, and Stanford.

In its first race, the Crimson bested the Stanford Cardinals in a 1-2-5 victory that essentially secured its position as national champions with skippers junior Justin Callahan, junior Mitchell Callahan and sophomore Robby Meek, and crew junior Kennedy Leehealey, junior Aidan Pesce, sophomore Rosella Irfan and senior Alexandra Dorofeev. Amidst this initial regatta success, Harvard fell to Roger Williams (4-5-6) and Yale (3-4-5). Despite these championship challenges, the Crimson claimed the ICSA Open Team Race National Championship with a record of 20-5.

ICSA Women’s Team National Championships

Following the dominant performance last Saturday, Harvard Sailing turned its attention to the ICSA Women’s Team Race National Championship. Seeded No. 4, the Crimson battled windy conditions to finish in a tie for third place in the Team Championships on Sunday — marking a new team best.

The Crimson’s boat was led by skippers senior Cordelia Burn, freshman Kate Danielson and sophomore Zoey Ziskind with a crew of senior Margo Silliman, freshman Amelie Zucker, junior Kennedy Leehealey and sophomore Peyton Hadfield.

Harvard saw early success in round one where it defeated Georgetown (1-2-5), Cornell (1-2-3), MIT (1-2-3), Tufts (1-2-3), and Penn (1-3-6). Following two races lost to Yale (3-5-6) and Dartmouth (3-4-6), the Crimson regained momentum for a short period with a victory over the College of Charleston (2-3-5) before a 1-2-4 loss to Stanford that concluded the team’s Sunday afternoon performance.

Sunday’s race results produced a tie between Tulane and Harvard with both teams securing a 6-3 record on the day.

The team advanced to the round of four after a pair of wins and three losses against competitors. The Crimson fell to Yale, but Cornell — a team Harvard beat earlier — also lost to Stanford before races stopped because of wind conditions.

Stanford, therefore, picked up the national title, with Harvard sitting in third place.

“I am very proud of this team” Head Coach Michael O’Connor said. “They came a long way this year. To end up on the podium is an amazing accomplishment. Our team kept playing the right way all year, and it paid off this week.”

– Staff Writer Ava K. McCoy can be reached at ava.mccoy@thecrimson.com.