CLUBS ROUNDUP: Sailing club rebounds

After a disappointing fall season last year, the song "Blowin' In the Wind" by Joan Baez was probably ringing loudly in the ears of the co-ed Penn sailing team. For the first time in five years Penn failed to make the sectional championships, and it all happened during its qualifying meet. With no breeze, the Penn sailors watched as their season slowly faded away with the dying wind. Every fall, the qualifying regatta determines a team's ranking and its upcoming spring and fall schedules. The crushing loss last fall caused the sailing team to lose its top-10 ranking. Despite a discouraging schedule lacking competitive regattas, the Red and Blue rebounded in its spring season, making it all the way to the qualifying round of Nationals. With eight to 10 returning seniors, the team headed into this year determined to erase the bad memories of last fall. "This year was not considered to be a rebuilding season for us," co-captain Alex "Alice" Abell said. In addition to a strong core of veterans including seniors Abell, Philippe de Weck and Vivian Chang, Penn also had a large recruiting class of 15 members. "After speaking with a couple of freshmen who had sailing experience, we were very optimistic heading into this season," Abell said. So far this fall the sailing team has raced well in all three of its regattas, finishing in the top five every time. In the "Tom Curtis Memorial" regatta held Sept. 30 at Georgetown, the team had its finest moment this season. The regatta included 14 teams overall, with such sailing standouts as Navy, St. Mary's and Old Dominion. After a grueling three days of racing Penn tied Princeton for third place. This past weekend Penn was able to wipe the slate clean from last season's fluke loss when it placed third in the qualifying round for the sectional championships. A major reason the team faltered last year was because of a couple members "who were divisive and who caused personality friction," according to Abell. "This year as a group, we all get along much better?there is more team unity and overall there is a new strong nucleus of senior leaders." In two weeks Penn will attend sectionals. "Our goal is place in the top five in our section. We want to sail competitively in all our remaining regattas in the fall and spring," Abell said.