The New Trier sailing team recently returned from the Mallory Nationals in Seattle where they placed 13th out of 20 teams. They qualified for this national meet at the Midwest Team Racing National Qualifiers by placing 2nd out of 12 teams for fleet racing. The Trevians are currently ranked as the 2nd best sailing team out of 35 teams that are ranked throughout the Midwest.
At the Mallory Fleet-Racing National Championship in Seattle the Trevians 13th place finish is still something to celebrate. In the final standings, they were only a few points away from 10th place. This meet is known for having the best competition in the United States for High School sailing, so that finish is very impressive.
“I personally am satisfied with this result. Just being there was amazing,” senior co-captain Mitchell Gordon said. “We sailed well as a team though, we just had a few tough races towards the end,” said coach Matt Clark.
Excluding Nationals, the Trevians have not finished worse than 4th place in any of their other five meets this year. The Trevians’ résumé includes a 4th place finish at the Icebreaker regatta, a 1st place finish at the Mallory qualifier, a 4th place finish at the Minnetonka Team Race, a 2nd place finish at the Baker Qualifier, and then their most recent meet at Nationals finishing 13th out of 20 teams in the nation.
The Trevians goal at the start of the year was to qualify for the National meet, and they achieved that.
“Qualifying for and sailing at a national event has been a dream of mine since freshman year, and one I finally achieved this season,” said Gordon.
Ideally, the Trevians would have liked a slightly higher finish, but nonetheless they were still pleased with their result.
“At nationals I think we would have liked to be top ten overall so we were just outside that,” Clark said.
Even so, the Trevians were able to give more experience for their returning sailors.
“We got some good experience for our returning sailors and our A-division sailors,” Clark said.
The Trevians had an impressive individual finish with junior Will Holz, and crews made up of junior Madeleine Cooney and senior Mike Kanare finished 6th place out of 20. The Trevians have had great depth this season, which is a big reason why they have had success.
“We have so many players that have been responsible for the team’s success, going all the way down to our newest JV sailors,” Clark said.
The two most active skippers are junior Will Holz and senior co-captain Mitchell Gordon. The Trevians have also a long list of crews that include Kanare, Cooney, senior Sam Scales and freshman Sarah Wright.
The Trevians depth is something that they use to their advantage, and continue developing more and more talented sailors. Besides depth, the Trevians have many other strengths. As a team, the Trevians boast good boat speed and boat handling. They try to be as efficient as they can be in the water.
“We have spent a lot of time focusing on the big picture and trying to minimize mistakes,” Clark said.
The Trevians like to give as many people experience as possible, and with the depth they have, they can afford to do that.
“We go into each weekend knowing that the more races we sail, the more it works to our advantage,” Clark said. The Trevians’ weakness tends to lie around the starting line.
It can be hard to deal with the shifting of the wind, and other boats. The Trevians have to deal with elements beyond their control. “ I think for a lot of teams the biggest weakness is around the starting line, not necessarily because of our own abilities, but because of what we cannot necessarily control,” Clark said.
With their 2nd place finish at the Midwest Team Racing National Qualifiers, the Trevians reserved their spot in this weekend’s semi-national Atlantic Coast Challenge, which the Trevians are very excited about. The Trevians will be sending eight sailors to Hyannis, Massachusetts. The regatta is a team-racing regatta for 12 of the racing national qualifier runners up on the eastern side of the United States.
Only 12 out of the over 400 sailing teams in the United States qualify for team racing nationals, so this is very impressive for the Trevians. This regatta will be very competitive for the Trevians, even though they were not able to qualify for team racing in Nationals.
The Trevians have had a great season thus far, and will not only be bidding farewell to their seniors, but they will also be saying good bye to their coach. This is Clark’s last season as head coach before leaving to start graduate school. Clark has coached the team for 4 years.
“It is a great group of incredibly smart and talented athletes so it has been a lot of fun to work with the team,” Clark said.
The Trevians will want to end on a good note, not just for their seniors, but to give coach Clark a great memory of the successful past four years they have had.