Nov. 19, 2007

Washington, D.C. - A young group of Hoya sailors captured a first-place finish from more experienced West Coast squads in the North/South Sectional at UC-Santa Barbara. Georgetown received the one Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association bid to compete in the regatta and a group of freshman, Charlie Buckingham (Newport Beach, Calif./Newport Harbor), Evan Aras (Annapolis, Md./Severn School), Ashley Phillips (Charleston, S.C./Ashley Hall) and Scott Furnary (Rye, N.Y./Rye Country Day), along with sophomores Caila Johnson (Newport, R.I./St. Paul's School) and Marco Teixidor (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico/St. John's School), stole a victory from some of the elite West Coast sailing teams.

"For our last two recruiting classes to beat the top teams at Stanford, UC-Irvine and Hawaii, that's exciting," Sailing Head Coach Mike Callahan said. "It's a pretty good end to the fall season."

At the Atlantic Coast Championships, the Blue and Gray came away with two third-place finishes. In the coed regatta at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla., Georgetown came in third behind Boston College and St. Mary's, two of the top-ranked teams in the nation. In the women's regatta held at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., the Hoyas finished behind Yale and Charleston, two of the top-ranked women's teams in the country.

Senior Chris Behm (Hampton, Va./Hampton Roads Academy) and junior Carly Chamberlain (Newport Beach, Calif./Newport Harbor) came in first in the A division at the coed Atlantic Coast Championship. The pair won five of 13 races and came in second in two other runs. Zack Kavanaugh (Dartmouth, Mass./Dartmouth) and Alexandra Taylor (Hobe Sound, Fla./The Benjamin School) finished 12th in the C Division.

"The conditions were like Georgetown -- it wasn't windy," Callahan said. "[Behm and Chamberlain] were comfortable in that kind of stuff."

On the women's side, seniors Blaire Herron (Coronado, Calif./Coronado) and Leigh Fogwell (Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich) came in third in the A Division, while junior Emily Babbitt (Dartmouth, Mass./Bishop Stang) and senior Jamie Loeks (Rye, N.Y./Rye) came in sixth in their B boat. Combined, Georgetown finished 29 points off of Yale's pace.

"The girls sailed well," Callahan said. "And Yale is a tough place to sail."

Callahan added that he thinks both teams should finish third in the final fall rankings after their performances in the fall championships.