May 2, 2004
Washington 7th at America Trophy
Horrocks & Mudge Finish 6th in A Division

GENEVA, NY -- The Washington College sailing team closed out its spring 2004 season with a seventh-place finish at the America Trophy, the MAISA Spring Championships, which was held yesterday and today at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

St. Mary's (MD) won the 16-team regatta. The Seahawks, along with second-place Hobart/William Smith and third-place King's Point, qualified for the ICSA Co-Ed Dinghy National Championships.

Sophomore Carl Horrocks (Point Pleasant, NJ/Point Pleasant Boro) and freshman crew Alex Mudge (Baltimore, MD/Loyola Blakefield) led Washington with a sixth-place finish in A Division. Horrocks and Mudge finished as high as second in their 14 A Division races.

Junior skipper Chad Hillyer (Summit, NJ/Morristown-Beard) and freshman crew Vanessa Anderson (Narragansett, RI/The Prout School) finished eighth in B Division. Hillyer and Anderson finished as high as third in a race.

Saturday began with a light southerly wind which quickly built and shifted right. A fairly strong southwesterly wind with considerable oscillations hung around for two sets of races. The breeze became more variable in velocity towards the end of the day.

Sunday provided excellent conditions. The day's racing began under a partly cloudy sky with a steady 10 knot breeze out of the south. As the day progressed, the clouds cleared, the winds increased, and the waves grew. The breeze eventually steadied at around 15-20 knots with gusts to 25. That breeze held throughout the afternoon. Threatening storms started moving in from the west late in the day to end the regatta at 14 races per division.