{"id":3813,"date":"2026-04-02T14:25:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T18:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/student-affairs\/?p=3813"},"modified":"2026-04-02T14:26:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T18:26:05","slug":"uri-club-sailing-womens-makes-history-by-qualifying-for-conference-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/student-affairs\/news\/2026\/04\/uri-club-sailing-womens-makes-history-by-qualifying-for-conference-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"URI club sailing women’s makes history by qualifying for conference championships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is the Rams’ first appearance at the NEISA Women’s Team Racing Championship and a major step for the program as it continues its success within a traditionally varsity-dominated landscape<\/p>\n\n\n

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With a deep roster of skippers and crew members, URI’s club sailing team returned to women’s team competition after participating exclusively in fleet and singlehanded racing in 2024\u201325; the end result is a qualifying berth in the upcoming NEISA Women’s Team Racing Championship April 11\u201312 at Tufts University. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Kingston, R.I. \u2013 April 2, 2026 \u2013 The University of Rhode Island club sailing team\u2019s investment in women\u2019s team competition is starting to pay dividends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time in program history, the Rams have qualified for the New England Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) Women’s Team Racing Championship, scheduled for April 11 to 12 at Tufts University. This regatta is the NEISA\u2019s annual team conference championship with the winner earning an automatic berth to the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association of North America (ICSA) Women\u2019s Team Racing National Championship at the end of the month. Strong performers at the conference championship also have an opportunity to qualify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

URI is the only club team competing amongst nine varsity programs, including host Tufts, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bowdoin College, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and last year\u2019s conference champion Yale University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s trip to the conference championship represents a historic first for URI sailing, which had not competed in women\u2019s team racing since 2023 when head coach Joakim Karlsen served as interim coach. Team racing at the collegiate level consists of three boats with six sailors total \u2013 three skippers and three crew members \u2013 competing against their opponent to earn the lowest combined score of the finishing positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

URI qualified for the NEISA this year by finishing second behind the Coast Guard Academy at the Callahan Trophy cross regional regatta in March. That race featured four schools competing in three round robins; URI finished 6-3 in its three rounds, just one win behind Coast Guard and three ahead of third-place finisher Northeastern University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll the credit goes to our sailors,\u201d Karlsen said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been working hard all year building the skills they need and sailing at a high level. We\u2019re excited to compete in the conference championships.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

URI\u2019s first attempt at women\u2019s team sailing under Karlsen \u201cdid not go well,\u201d according to the Rams\u2019 third-year coach, so the women stuck to fleet and singlehanded racing in 2024\u201325 \u2013 singlehanded racing is strictly solo competition with one sailor per boat \u2013 until Karlsen was confident the Rams had enough qualified skippers to complement their deep roster of crews to compete successfully as a team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The skipper trio of junior Ariana Schwartz, senior Kytalin Hendrickson, and junior Emaline Ouellette led Rhode Island in team competition this year, but Karlsen noted it took a total team effort to qualify for the conference championships, including sophomore crews Savannah Miner and Erin Little and freshman Harper Kelly, among others. Karslen also credits assistant coach Kate Bjerregaard, a former four-year varsity sailor at St. Mary\u2019s College, with using her experience to guide Rhode Island\u2019s underclassmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTeam racing has an incredible amount of complex layers beyond just boat speed, technique, and boat handling,\u201d Karlsen said, \u201cand those need to be in place to be able to execute. Our sailors really put in the work this year. We\u2019re seeing combinations of [skippers] and crews that we hadn\u2019t tested out before. They\u2019ve all been instrumental to our success. Those combinations are looking strong and now we\u2019re in the conference championships among the top 10 teams in the conference. As the only club team in this group, I\u2019m incredibly proud of what we\u2019ve accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qualifying for nationals would be a perfect ending to the 2025\u201326 season, but Karlsen has warned his sailors against being \u201cresult oriented\u201d this year, especially with a relatively young roster that figures to return in 2026\u201327.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’re very process oriented,\u201d Karlsen said. \u201cWe\u2019re not sure what will happen at the conference championships, but the goal is to focus on what needs to be done and execute at a high level. We don\u2019t want to just count our wins and losses. Let\u2019s just focus on the race ahead and be performance focused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019ve tried to hammer home this season is that the only thing that matters is the race in front of us. We\u2019re not thinking weeks ahead or two races ahead. We\u2019re just focused on what we can do right now and make sure we execute our best race possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

###<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Parente, director of communications and marketing in the URI Division of Student Affairs, wrote this news release.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the Rams’ first appearance at the NEISA Women’s Team Racing Championship and a major step for the program as it continues its success within a traditionally varsity-dominated landscape Kingston, R.I. \u2013 April 2, 2026 \u2013 The University of Rhode Island club sailing team\u2019s investment in women\u2019s team competition is starting to pay dividends. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5297,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[13,17],"class_list":["post-3813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-news","tag-spring-2026"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/student-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/student-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/student-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/student-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5297"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/student-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/student-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3815,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/student-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3813\/revisions\/3815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/student-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/student-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/student-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}