JU Sailing
Team Makes
15th National
Championship
Appearance
Seven years ago, Jacksonville University
Sailing Team Coach Jon Faudree
arrived on campus from Rochester,
NY, ready to build a team from
scratch. With the support of University
administration and sailing enthusiasts
around the city, in its short history the
team has already become a national
powerhouse in collegiate sailing, with
a string of National Championship
appearances and individual
accomplishments.
In November 2019, the Sailing Team
celebrated major milestones as JU
sailors competed in the team’s 14th and
15th National Championship regattas.
In Santa Barbara, Calif., Charlotte Rose
’22 and Maartje van Dam ’23 competed
in the women’s singlehanded national
championships against sailors from
elite colleges around the country.
Charlotte placed third, capping a
string of stellar performances that
included finishing ninth out of 150
sailors at the World Championships in
Japan in July, and a silver medal at the
Pan-American Games in Lima, Peru
in August. Charlotte is now ranked
first on the U.S. Olympic Sailing Team
as she prepares to compete in the
World Championships in Melbourne,
Australia in February 2020. The results
of that regatta will finalize who will
represent the United States at the 2020
Olympics in Tokyo.
As the action heated up in Santa
Barbara, the JU Sailing Match Race
team traveled to Marblehead, Mass.
for the team’s second National
Championship appearance in that
discipline. JU Sailors Alfonso Garcia
Bringas ’20, Andre Guaragna ’20,
Telmo Basterra ’21 and Grace Benzal
’23 fought off 10 elite teams —
including from Fordham University
and Tufts — to finish third in the
country behind Stanford University
and Georgetown University.
Alfonso Garcia Bringas ’20 and Jack Gower ’20 compete at Nationals.
The fall National Championship
performances cap off an incredible
year of sailing success. In the spring
of 2019, as the JU campus prepared
for final exams, the JU Sailing
Team was preparing for a test of a
different kind: the Inter-Collegiate
Sailing Association’s spring National
Championships in Newport, R.I. For
the first time in its history, the team
competed in all three spring National
Championships: the qualifying Semi-
Finals for Women’s and Co-ed, as well
as the Team Race Finals.
Continuing the team’s string of firsts,
in Newport JU Sailors Alfonso, Jack
Gower ’20 and Daniel Ofarrill ’22 won
the Co-Ed Semi-Final “A Division,”
besting the likes of Stanford, Navy,
Dartmouth, Brown, Tufts and Boston
University. With the A Division win
and a strong showing in B Division,
the team reached the Co-ed Finals for
the first time in program history, by
beating teams including Northwestern
University, University of Notre Dame
and University of Michigan. JU
ultimately finished 16th in the country
in the Co-ed Finals.
“Making the finals at the spring
National Championships has
always been our 10-year goal, and
we’re achieving it in only six years,”
said Coach Faudree. “I’m so proud
of all of the hard work our kids
have put in – in the classroom,
in the gym, and simulating race
conditions during practice – to learn
new strategies and become better
decision-makers on the water.”
The spring National Championships
were the culmination of an outstanding
2018-2019 season during which the
team was consistently ranked in the
top 20 nationally and qualified for all
six National Championships. JU is one
of only three teams in the country to
achieve that milestone; the other two
are perennial sailing powerhouses
Stanford University and College of
Charleston – impressive company
indeed. In addition, the team won the
conference Women’s Championship
and came in second at both the
conference Co-ed Championship and
conference Team Race Championship.
In total, the team competed in 43
regattas around the country and
traveled more than 30,000 miles
in pursuit of its success during the
2018-2019 season. Thanks to the
sailors’ hard work and focus during the
season, Coach Faudree was named the
Sail1Design/Gill Coach of the Year,
an award that recognizes excellence
in coaching across all levels of sailing
and for which Coach Faudree was
nominated by several of his peers.
For Coach Faudree, the award is
the culmination of many years of
developing strong competitors. “My
first year on campus, I wandered
around looking for kids who looked
like athletes, and convinced some of
them to try sailing,” Coach Faudree
said. “Now, thanks to our consistent
high performance and a lot of time
on the road recruiting, JU is attracting
some of the best youth sailors in the
country and internationally.”
NEWS
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