THROGGS NECK, N.Y. (April 29, 2013) – This past weekend, the Maritime sailing team traveled south to Hampton, Va. to take part in the College Sailing National Semi-Finals. The event featured the top 36 sailing teams in the country divided into two 18-team regattas in order to determine which teams would earn berths to the College Sailing National Finals in Tampa, Fla. on May 28-30. Teams across the two events (named the Eastern and Western semifinals) were fighting for nine available berths from each regatta to continue their postseason play.
 
        The Privateers were seeded into the Eastern semifinal group and struggled out of the gates on Saturday morning. A personnel change in A division from All-MAISA team skipper Harry Scott (Annapolis, Md./Annapolis) (Annapolis, Md./Annapolis)to senior Tyler Steel (Southwest Harbor, Maine/Mount Desert Island) (Southwest Harbor, Maine/Mount Desert Island) as well as a solid performance by Nick Valente (Charleston, S.C./Wando) (Charleston, S.C./Wando) and Paige Conlin (Bellport, N.Y./St. Anthony's) (Bellport, N.Y./St. Anthony's) helped push the team into eleventh place after racing on Saturday, roughly twenty points out of a qualifying position and a lot to race for on Sunday. B division duties were handled all weekend by Valente/Conlin and All-MAISA star crew Emma Lamontagne (West Grove, Pa./Avon Grove) (West Grove, Pa./Avon Grove) held the team together crewing in A division for the event.
 
        Sunday saw a very strong performance from the team, catapulting up the leaderboard all the way to eighth place on the strength of solid A division finishes and a string of 2-2-4-6-1-1 finishes in B division by Valente and Conlin to finish the regatta. After all was said and done the Privateers secured their second consecutive berth to the ICSA National Sailing Championship Finals and are excited to represent the college at the highest level!
 
        Full scores can be found at http://scores.collegesailing.org/s13/sailing-east-semis/full-scores/