Northwestern will host 40 sailers for the Midwest Collegiate Sailing Association women’s national qualifier regatta this weekend on Lake Michigan.
The regatta, a fleet-racing competition with two sailors per boat and two boats per school, will conclude Sunday with an awards ceremony. The top two boats advance to the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association women’s championship.
“We’re very proud of our sailors going this weekend and we think that they stand to do very well,” said commodore Ali Garmey, a junior on the NU women’s team.
Lindsey Duda and co-captain Marie Kyle will make up NU’s A fleet for the competition. The B fleet has not been determined.
Raring to go: For a team that chooses to go by the name “Gung-Ho,” it comes as no surprise that the NU women’s ultimate frisbee team’s season has been characterized by fast-paced, energetic starts that have left opponents drained and dismayed.
NU (8-0 in regional play), which finished 10th in the nation in 2001, defeated all five teams it faced Sunday at Purdue in a round-robin tournament. NU entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed but had no trouble knocking off top seed Indiana in the final game, winning 12-5.
“There was a lot of wind, which makes it really hard for ultimate,” team captain Shelly Peyton said. “They couldn’t handle it and we could.”
NU and Indiana will represent the Indiana-Illinois section at the 16-team regional tournament, to be held April 27-28 in Columbus, Ohio.
“Our goal is to make it to nationals and to finish in the top eight,” Peyton said. “We are going to be peaking in two weeks, which is perfect.”
Starting fresH: You can throw out the records and six straight weeks of travel and competition. With all teams receiving a clean slate for the postseason, the only thing that matters to the NU men’s ultimate frisbee team is Saturday’s sectional competition at Purdue.
“We’ve really buckled down, and for the first time we have a real set offense and defense,” team captain Arjun Venkatesh said. “I don’t think many of the really good teams in the region expect us to bring the level of play we’ll bring this week.”
Eighteen teams will take part in sectionals, with the top six advancing to regionals the following weekend at Ohio State. NU enters the competion as the No. 5 seed.
A True test: The NU men’s rugby team enters Saturday’s meeting with Eastern Illinois undersized, undermanned and with something to prove.
“I would like to show that we can play with those good teams,” team president Matthew Weil said. “To show that we can play at that level, it says that we’re not a second-class team.”
Eastern Illinois, with a larger enrollment than NU, is consistently one of the strongest teams in Division II. NU, meanwhile, is striving to achieve the same level of success it enjoyed from 1998 to 2000, when the team finished first in the Chicago Area Rugby Football Union in back-to-back seasons and then finished second the following year.
NU lost eight regular starters from last season, but the team will be able to rely heavily on an improving core of underclassmen and first-year players.
Saturday’s game at Gaelic Park in Chicago will provide NU with a chance to see where it stands among the elite.
too easy: Forgive the NU women’s rugby team if it enters Saturday’s competition against Illinois State erring on the side of self-confidence. When the two teams met last season, NU didn’t allow a single point, winning 58-0.
Combine this piece of history with the fact that Illinois State has since graduated several key players, and NU (2-1) thinks it has reason to be self-assured.
“If anything, their team should be weaker this year, and we should dominate the game,” team president Elizabeth Entwhistle said.
NU will play Illinois State on Saturday at 11 a.m. and again at 1 p.m. at Lakeside Field.
BLOOMINGTON BOUND: The NU men’s crew team will send open-weight eight-person and four-person teams to Bloomington, Ind., this weekend to compete against Indiana and Marquette. The women’s team, meanwhile, will send two fours up against varsity teams from various schools.
