The No. 1 Harvard co-ed and women’s sailing teams made a statement to future opponents by qualifying five sailors for last weekend’s North American men’s and women’s singlehanded championships.

By the end of the regatta, Harvard had hammered home its message: the Crimson five are some of the nation’s best.

Each of the five sailors—three women, two men—placed in the top-four of his or her respective division, highlighted by sophomore skipper Vince Porter’s first-place overall finish.

Men’s Singlehandeds

Both Porter and freshman Clay Johnson navigated their way to strong position at the regatta’s onset, placing second and third, respectively, in the race’s first stage. Though the pair took different routes to the finish, they wound up nearly in the same spot—first and third, separated by just eight points.

Porter steered a straight and narrow course throughout the three days of competition. He was never more than five points out of lead prior to seizing first place in race eight of 15.

In the race’s beginning stages, Tufts’ Alexander Kirkland took his place at the head of the pack with top-four finishes in races four through seven, gaining a three-point lead on Porter.

But the Crimson sophomore countered with a strong surge of his own beginning in race six, crossing the line first to begin a streak in which he finished in the top-four in five of the next six races.

In the last of those, a third-place Porter finish, Kirkland collapsed.

His 15th place finish in race 11 opened up a 13-point lead for Porter, and three finishes of 12th or worse for Kirkland in the final four races sealed Porter’s victory. Porter added an exclamantion mark to his overall victory with a win in the final race.

Johnson, on the other hand, battled from far back in the pack to move within striking distance of the lead on the competition’s final day.

“The first couple of days were particularly shifty [in terms of wind],” Johnson said. “It was really patchy wind. If you just don’t get a break at the starting line, you don’t get a break, you find yourself coming from behind.”

A 12th and ninth place finish in the regatta’s opening five races put Johnson behind, but a disqualification sent Johnson reeling.

Johnson was determined to be at fault after he and an opponent collided in a battle for position around a buoy. His eventual seventh place finish was officially changed to a 17th—the number of the boats in the race plus one. The extra 10 points would ultimately cost him the title.

An 11th place finish in the following race left him 27 points back, but Johnson—an expert with the laser sailboats used for the race—was not prepared to simply lay down.