The Jones Sailing Team continued their winning streak after taking third place in the Great Lakes Regatta and 8th place in San Diego. The team will be headed to New York for the Atlantic Coast Championship.
While the sailing team has excelled in previous years, they went above and beyond, surpassing their own records this school year.
“Last year we did very well, and this year we’re definitely matching that. And even in some ways going beyond,” said sailing team Co-Captain Orla Gilroy ‘25. “We qualified for both the national and girls regatta in San Diego.”
Qualifying for a national regatta was a major accomplishment for the team.
“We performed better than we did last year, as well as qualified for the Atlantic Coast Championships, which is a national regatta,” said Gilroy.
The Great Lakes Championship took place at the Chicago Yacht Club, where the team went up against other Chicago area teams.
“It felt really good to come in third at the Great Lakes championships. The top teams from our district were there, so it felt really good,” said Gilroy.
The team set a high bar for themselves at this past championship.
“We had an expectation going into the regatta, and I feel like we came out meeting that expectation,” said team member Duke Diep ‘27.
Racing against other Chicago schools made the regatta a competitive one.
“It was a little bittersweet to come in third because obviously we wanted first, but top three is still something to be proud of,” said sailing team Co-Captain Peter Stewart ‘24.
The team’s winning streak did not come without difficulties.
“The varying conditions were really tough. The wind ranged from super heavy to super light and the large waves made everything a little bit harder,” said Stewart.
Despite these obstacles, the Jones Sailing Team has managed to come out of this season with a national ranking.
“The sailing team has done extremely well this year, especially the girls team who saw major improvement and finished top 10 in the country,” said Stewart.
The team developed significantly since last year, which can be attributed to changes in the lineup.
“We switched up pairings more than usual this regatta, which definitely helped,” said Stewart.
The captains have also noticed that the team dynamic shifted from previous seasons, which offers another explanation regarding this year’s sailing success.
“We definitely bonded as a team this season. Not that we weren’t close in past years, but I think we became a closer-knit team this year, which really helped us,” said Gilroy.
While the connection between team members stayed very strong, it did not always come easily.
“Our biggest struggle was communicating to build our new team. But this always comes with time since this was the beginning of the season with new members,” said team member Nissa Berman ‘26.
The team holds high hopes for their performance as the season comes to an end.
“Last year at the Atlantic Coast championships we did not come in a great position so I really hope that we improve from last year,” said Gilroy.
The sailors expressed excitement for another opportunity to compete at such a high level.
“I’m excited for New York because I get to compete on a national level again and represent Jones,” said Stewart. “I hope to see improvements from last year’s placements in New York.”
The team remains positive in terms of the regatta and hopes to compete well at the national level.
“It’s a pretty good competition there so it will be a good challenge but we can definitely handle it,” said Diep.
While the overall standing of the team holds a great deal of importance to the captains, the accomplishments of each individual sailor should also be recognized.
“My hope for the rest of the season is to see improvement from everyone on the team as we can all always get better and learn more,” said Stewart.
As the season comes to a close, the JCP sailing team expressed pride in all of this year’s accomplishments.
“Our whole team has made lots of improvements over the past year. We have all put in a lot of time and effort into building our skills,” said Berman.
