BHS advances to fleet nationals
Published 10:49 am Friday, May 13, 2016
BAINBRIDGE – The Bainbridge High varsity Sailing Team qualified over the weekend of April 23-24 for the Interscholastic Sailing Association Mallory Trophy national fleet racing championship.
The high school championships will be held the weekend of May 13-15 in Charleston, South Carolina. Co-Captains Caelan Juckniess and Karl Anderson, and Blake Bentzen, Nicole Sanford, Sophia Kasper and Elizabeth Rolfes will represent Bainbridge at the Mallory Trophy regatta.
Qualification for the national high school fleet racing championships was based on season standings within the North West District, comprising schools from the four northwest states. Standings were computed using a formula heavily weighted toward last weekend’s fleet racing regatta held at Lake Whatcom near Bellingham.
BHS pressed rival North Kitsap High for the regatta crown all weekend, with the lead changing hands several times, but Bainbridge eventually fell just short in a nail-biter finish that wasn’t decided until the last of the regatta’s 28 races.
In the end, Bainbridge finished the regatta in second place among 17 varsity teams, and finished the combined season rankings just two points shy of North Kitsap.
While chasing North Kitsap, Bainbridge had to fend off stiff challenges posed by Sehome (Bellingham) and Woodinville to retain their second-place finish. Winds were light to moderate and shifty all weekend, the predominant spring sailing conditions in the Pacific Northwest, including one dramatic 180-degree shift that upended the fleet, causing the race committee to abandon a race and re-sail it.
Ironically, members of the Bainbridge and North Kitsap squads are close friends, having competed with and against each other and trained regularly together for many years. They will now bring this unique combination of friendship and rivalry to the national stage for the Mallory Trophy competition to be sailed at the College of Charleston.
At this same regatta, the Bainbridge junior varsity sailing team utterly dominated their competition.
Twenty-six teams sailed in the JV division, including three teams representing BHS.
The BHS Team 1 consisting of skipper Olivia Mitchell and crew Amanda Gilmore led the JV “A” fleet by 10 points; skipper Rolfes and crew Sophie Crandell gained an incredible 25-point lead over the “B” fleet in their respective eight-race series. Combining Team 1’s “A” and “B” results gave them the JV regatta win with an astonishing 41-point margin over their closest competition.
JV Team 2 consisting of skipper Harry Saliba and alternating crew Kat Smith and Camden Lee finished in 12th place in fleet “A,” while skipper Sophie Lewis aided by alternating crew Daniel Rentz and Camden Lee finished fifth in “B” fleet, giving Team 2 a combined ninth place finish.
JV Team 3 skippers Quinn Ring and Will Price, aided by crew Roark Coggon and Jack Sobeck earned a solid 14th place overall out of the fleet of 26 teams.
A district record 220 high school sailors and 60 Flying Junior sailboats were active at the regatta between the varsity and JV competitions.
Bainbridge Coach Susan Kaseler was happy with the results, but more than that was pleased by the effort made by all the team members both at the regatta and at practice. In particular, the JV results are outstanding all around, showing great team depth and auguring well for future seasons.
This will mark the 14th year in a row that the Bainbridge Sailing Team has advanced through the district championships to represent the Northwest at the national high school championships, in one or the other of the “fleet” racing or “team” racing disciplines.
After returning from the national Mallory Trophy fleet racing championships, Bainbridge will defend its North West District “team racing” title on May 21-22 in Anacortes.
