Hope sailor qualifies for national regatta

WHO’S GOT TWO THUMBS AND JUST QUALIFIED? THIS GIRL — Elizabeth Reeg (’17) pictured all smiles, after the sailing event at the Northwestern University Sailing Center in Evanston, Ilinois. (Elizabeth Reeg)

Summary
The weekend of Oct. 15, Hope College Sailing Team member Elizabeth Reeg (’17) competed on Lake Michigan at Northwestern University in the Midwest Collegiate Sailing Association (MCSA) Women’s Singlehanded Championships. Reeg sailed in a Laser against the reining champion Megan Mahon (’17) from University of Wisconsin as well as sailors from Michigan State University.

Conditions for the regatta were extreme. Saturday wind speeds were consistently 15-20 knots with gusts of 30 knots and two to four foot waves. Reeg won four out of seven races on Saturday, leading the regatta by one point at the end of the day.

Sunday began in a postponement due to light wind. Only two races were run, in which Reeg took second and first place. By the end of the regatta, Reeg was in first place with a four point lead over University of Wisconsin’s Mahon.

By winning the MSCA Singlehanded Championships, Reeg qualified for the only Midwest berth for the Women’s National Singlehanded Championships. This is the first time Hope Sailing has qualified for a national event. She will be representing both Hope College and Midwest collegiate sailing at the National Championship, hosted by Texas A&M in Galveston, Texas Nov. 4-6.

While Reeg was competing at Northwestern, Hope Sailing also had a team sailing in the Cary-Price Memorial Regatta hosted by the University of Michigan. The team (consisting of skippers Carrie Ritter (’18), Joseph Cinal (’20) and Dylan Sabo (’19) and crews Nina McAlvey (’20), Jacob Pledger (’18) and Lisette Boer (’19) competed in Flying Juniors, completing eight races and finishing the regatta in eighth place.

The next regatta Hope Sailing will be competing in is the Boudeman Cup hosted by Western Michigan University at Gull Lake, followed by Cedarfest at Michigan State University the last weekend of Oct. Hope College Sailing Team will also be hosting the MCSA Fall Championships at Macatawa Bay Yacht Club Nov. 12-13.

Some further information about our team:
The Hope College Sailing Team sails boats called 420’s: mid-sized, two-sailed, two-person crew, racing dinghies. They sail three to five times a week out of Lake Macatawa Yacht Club, near Holland. The team remains open to all experience levels and is professionally coached by Cappy Capper. Capper founded and served as President of the Midwest High School Sailing Association, Vice President of the Interscholastic Sailing Association of North America and has coached several High School, College and Youth Racing teams to National Championship regattas.