MIAMI, FL (October 5,2014): Another big travel weekend for the SailPack found the NC State women's squad in Miami for the 2014 SAISA Fall Women's Conference Championships. Following women's singlehanded champs on Saturday, women's dinghy teams from across SAISA met up at the Ransom Everglades waterfront and were greeted with a shifty westerly of about 8 knots and held strong long enough to complete 5 races in each division.
Wheeler and Kristoffersen get warmed up with the Miami skyline in the background.
All photos (c) Caroline Eberhardt
"The races were great today," said veteran junior crew Kristin Neill. "We're really proud of the improvements we made over the course of the day."
A packed starting line in the 3rd race of the day
On the previous weekend, NC State's women's team had gone to Knoxville to race in the SAISA North Points #3 regatta as a warm-up to the championships, but with very little wind all across the East Coast, the regatta hosted by the University of Tennessee was called. At the start of Sunday morning's races which were held in a combined fleet of 14 boats, NC State finished the first race close to the bottom before finding their groove. In A-fleet, the SailPack was represented by freshman skipper Kara Wheeler (Oriental, NC) and senior crew Annalisa Kristoffersen (Raleigh, NC), with sophomore skipper April Lamb (China Grove, NC) and junior crew Kristin Neill (Greensboro, NC) racing in B-fleet. Also traveling with the squad was freshman Caroline Eberhardt (Stuart, VA), but the race committee was unable to complete any further races during her time on the water.
NC State's B-fleet boat underway
"This is the start of the second full year for the women's program at NC State and we're seeing them make great improvements and competitiveness," said NC State head coach Dana Magliola. "I am sure that their continued hard work and practice, as well as the commitment we've seen from all of the women on the roster will surely pay dividends."
Both NC State boats sailing between races in great conditions.
By 3pm in the afternoon, the wind died and the day's races were called. NC State's women finish 6th in A-fleet and 7th in B-fleet with an overall 7th place for the regatta. Conference championship winners the USF Bulls, as well as the College of Charleston and Eckerd College squads all qualified for ACC Championships which will be held in Boston this year at MIT. Congratulations and represent SAISA well! Full scores and report are HERE.
Lamb and Eberhardt wait for the wind to return, but to no avail...
