Sailing Team Caps Undefeated Season with Third-Place Finish at Two National Events

An epic sailing season ended on a high note when Milton placed third in the ISSA Baker Team Race Championship held in Norfolk, Virginia. The national race consisted of the top 12 teams from around the country. Milton qualified for the race after placing second at the New England team racing championship held at Bowdoin College.

The team also had great success in fleet racing—placing third in both the New England championships and the national ISSA Mallory Doublehanded Championship. The number-one-ranked team also won the Massachusetts State High School Championship. These accomplish- ments capped off an undefeated regular season in which the team went 20–0, losing only four races the entire season and winning every meet.

“Going undefeated was my proudest moment,” says Eli Burnes ’17, one of the co-captains of the team. “We had to be very focused all season, because every race counted.” Co-captain Ginny Alex ’17 said their biggest meet win was against St. George’s School.

The appearance at the Baker race was the first time for Milton Academy since 2007. The weather was not ideal, with low wind and intermittent storms. “We were disappointed that wind wasn’t better, but we have strong skills so that it didn’t hold us back too much,” says Ginny. “We all went in really wanting to win, but coming out of it we were still happy with our third-place finish. We’ve grown so much as a team. During our freshman year, our goal was to make it to New Englands by the time we were seniors, and now as seniors, we made it to team racing nationals once and to fleet racing nationals twice.”