There are three national championships in collegiate sailing decided each spring. This year, Boston College claimed two of them. Only one team has ever done better—the U.S. Naval Academy, which won all three titles in 1991.

Illustration: Eamonn Bonner

In late May and early June, the Boston College sailing team won the Intercollegiate Sailing Association national championships in the women’s and coed team-racing divisions, and came tantalizingly close to sweeping the proceedings in Newport, Rhode Island, finishing in second place behind Georgetown in the coed dinghy championship. Coach Greg Wilkinson called his team’s showing one of the best in college sailing history. “Other teams have won two of the three championships, but none besides Navy have done as well in all three,” he said.

In recognition of this dominating performance, Boston College was awarded the Fowle Trophy, given to the team of the year at the national championship regatta, a first for the Eagles. Six Boston College sailors—seniors Reed Johnson and Emily Flint and juniors Brian Kamilar, Adam Roberts, Carrie Amarante, and Andrew Schneider—were named to the All-American team. Elizabeth Kempton ’09 was an honorable mention selection. In addition, Roberts was named the New England Intercollegiate Sailing association sportsman of the year. Both the women’s and coed teams finished the season at the top of their respective Sailing World magazine college sailing polls.

The championships are the first for the BC sailing program, and the women’s team championship marks the first for the University in any women’s sport. The sailing team joins the 1949, 2001, and 2008 men’s hockey teams and the 1940 football team as the squads in Eagles history that have captured a national championship.

Collegiate sailing is a two-season sport. In the fall, teams compete in men’s and women’s singlehanded events and race sloops, larger boats with a crew of three sailors. Last November, Reed Johnson placed second in the men’s singlehanded championship, held at the University of Washington, and the Eagles took second at the sloop national championship in Fort Worth, Texas.

Read more by Tim Czerwienski