On Sept. 17, the Brandeis sailing team placed 15th in a field of 18 at the Lake Champlain Open in Vermont.

The University of Rhode Island won the regatta with 38 total points, followed by Northeastern University with 40. The University of Vermont finished third with 41 points, and Salve Regina University, Bowdoin College and Providence College all tied for fourth place with 44 points.

The Judges totaled 114 points, 7 behind Connecticut College and 3 points ahead of Maine Maritime Academy. Sailing's scoring system is similar to cross country's method, in that teams receive points equal to their place of their finish in each race, and the team with the lowest point total wins the regatta. However, because of a lack of wind, only four races were held in each division.

While the team didn't do as well as its members had hoped, Fundraising and Communications Director Joshua Basseches '12 said that competing in the regatta was impressive given the size of the Brandeis sailing program.

"For us to be able to travel to Vermont and compete in this qualifying regatta was a very big accomplishment in [and] of itself because the competition consisted of larger schools from all three of the NCAA's divisions, as well as teams with more funding," he explained. "So while I wish we had placed higher, I think we agreed it was pretty solid compared to what we were hoping for."

Of the two divisions in the regatta, the Judges placed 12th in the A division with 48 points and 17th in the B division with 66 points. The highest finish of any individual Brandeis team during the regatta was ninth.

Brandeis was supposed to sail in the Chris Loder Trophy last weekend at the University of New Hampshire, but, without any wind, the regatta had to be cancelled. The team has two events next weekend, the first at Tufts University on Mystic Lake and then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where the team will race down the Charles River in Boston.