“It’s hard to go into a regatta that you didn’t really train for in the boat, but I’m pretty happy with how it went,” Russom said.

Shaking off a rough start, Russom’s results improved over the course of the weekend, and she showed a top-10 finish in all but two races on the second day of the regatta. She finished with a total of 131 points.

“The women’s New England singlehanded championship is a very, very competitive regatta,” O’Connor said. “For [Russom] to finish in the top half of the fleet is a pretty strong result. There were six women in the fleet who could potentially finish in the top three at the national championships.”

Freshman Erika Reineke of Boston College had a dominant showing, finishing first in nearly half of her races to total 30 points on her way to becoming the NEISA singlehanded champion.

O’Connor attributes the results from the weekend more to a lack of experience rather than of talent.

“What we do has worked for a long time, so we just have to keep working on it and give the kids some time and experience playing at the top level so they become more comfortable with it,” O’Connor said.