The sailing team, which featured four first-time collegiate sailors among its seven participants, finished in 18th place out of 19 teams at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Invitational last Sunday."Considering that this was our first event with a lot of freshmen, I thought we did quite well," coach Tom Robinson said. "We got better as the day went on, and everybody kept improving and learning new things."

The objective of competitive sailing is to gain the lowest score. A team earns points corresponding to its place in each race. There were 22 boats out on the water in Sunday's races. Harvard University placed first with 28 points, followed by the University of Rhode Island and MIT. Brandeis finished with 273 points.

Captain Lauren Wild '09, skippering for the first time, praised the efforts of rookies Raechel Banks '12, Josh Basseches '12, Jake Laband '12 and John Fonte '12.

"All the freshmen did well . just because they just started," Wild said.

In particular, Wild and Robinson praised Basseches' efforts, especially considering he sailed the entire day as the B-Division skipper.

"This was [Basseches'] first time racing in college . and he . skippered the whole day and did really well," Wild said.

In addition to Wild, Meghan Breslin-Jewer '11, who served as the B-Division crew member, and Lara Billet '09, one of three members of the team to serve as Wild's crew member in the A-Division, rounded out the veterans competing in Sunday's race. Each division sailed seven races for a total of 14 at Sunday's regatta.

Despite her veteran status, Wild said she's still adjusting to her own new role as a skipper, who is generally in charge of the tiller and the main sail.

"It was difficult for me. . I'm kind of learning how to play the role as a skipper rather than a crew member," she said.

Robinson said that because it was the first event, and different people were sailing together, it made for a more difficult adjustment, but as the season progresses, the sailors should develop a more stable partnership.

"We switched [positions] a lot, because it was the first event, just to see how different people would do and different combinations of people, so it was a lot of changing around," he said. "So it was confusing. Once everybody gets comfortable, you end up sailing with the same person most of the time and not a lot of changing.