CHARLESTON, S.C. - The third-ranked College of Charleston coed sailing team will look to defend its title at the 2012 Truxtun Umsted regatta hosted by the U.S. Naval Academy this weekend on March 17-18 in Annapolis, Md.
It will mark one of three weekend regattas for the Cougars, who defeated Georgetown in last year's race which catapulted them to their first No. 1 national ranking in over a decade.
"This will be our third time in three weeks to sail up at Navy," said team captain Zeke Horowitz. "We are the defending champions of the Trux. It's a big event for us with four divisions. It's definitely one of those regattas where it pays to be as deep as we are, so we are really excited to go up there to defend our title."
CofC, one of 20 of the top programs in the country in the field, will sail junior All-American Mac Mace (Newport Beach, Calif.), senior All-American Perry Emsiek (Corona del Mar, Calif.) and senior Sam Stokes (Norfolk, Va.) in A-Division followed by junior All-American Zeke Horowitz (Sarasota, Fla.), junior Cory DeCollibus (Duxbury, Mass.) and junior Brooks Clark (Newport Beach, Calif.) in B-Division. In addition, freshman Chris Sands (Nassau, Bahamas) and junior Ben Spector (Santa Clarita, Calif.) will compete in C-and D-Divisions respectively.
"We enjoy sailing up at the Naval Academy," DeCollibus said. "We hear it will be a little lighter than normal. The last few times it has been windy. We have a few more people back from abroad this spring, so it's great to get them back on the team and back in competition which gives us added depth."
CofC, ranked fifth nationally in team racing, will be one of seven schools participating in the Mendelblatt Team Race hosted by South Florida and Eckerd College on March 17-18 in St. Petersburg, Fla. The Cougars are joined by New York Maritime, Northwestern, Salve Regina, USF, Eckerd and Texas A&M-Galveston.
Junior Chris Banholzer (Hartland, Wis.), junior Michael Ramming (Newport Coast, Calif.) and junior Brendan Faria (Middletown, R.I.) will represent CofC in A-Division, while junior Sarah Scudder (Mamaroneck, N.Y.), freshman Tierney Driscoll (Bayport, N.Y.) and freshman Ali Blumenthal (Bellport, N.Y.) are in B-Division.
Meanwhile, the second-ranked CofC women will race at the St. Mary's Women's Invitational hosted by St. Mary's College of Maryland on March 17-18 in St. Mary's City, Md. The squad will be comprised of senior Corey Hall (St. Petersburg, Fla.), senior All-American Alyssa Aitken (Sandwich, Mass.), sophomore Grace Lucas (Little Silver, N.J.), junior Sarah Somes (Grosse Pointe Park, Mich.) and sophomore Carly Shevitz (Santa Barbara, Calif.).
"We are looking forward to a great weekend of racing," CofC Head Coach Ward Cromwell said. "We will compete at the Trux, a four-division event, and the St. Mary's Women's Invitational. We feel like we can win those two events and hope to put our best foot forward."
