NESSA News

Red Bank Regional High School Wins 2013 NJ State Championships

The Red Bank Regional High School Sailing Team won the 2013 New Jersey State High School Championships Regatta held Saturday, May 18 at the Shrewsbury Sailing and Yacht Club in Oceanport, NJ. The regatta was co-hosted by the Monmouth University Sailing Team and was contested in Monmouth's fleet of FJ-class sailboats. Ten teams from around the state competed for the championship. Winds ranged from 5 to 10 knots, and a light drizzle fell throughout most of the afternoon.

RBRHS won the regatta with a total score of 49 points and won 4 of the 16 races sailed. The team was led by senior starting skippers Max Neubelt and Caroline Garth, with sophomore Dominique Neubelt and junior Allison Peterson as starting crews. Robby Gearon was backup skipper / crew.

Christian Brothers Academy placed second with 52 points. Senior Jonathan Lutz, along with crew Jack Hurley, won 5 races in A-Division. Peter Maes and Kyle Lavin sailed for CBA in the B Division. In third place, with 57 points, was Princeton High School, led by senior skippers Scott Barbano and Xander O'Grady. Rounding out the top five were Rumson - Fair Haven High School with 60 points and Toms River South High School with 70 points.

The regatta was close from start to finish. RBR found themselves in 5th place overall after the first four races due to their two weakest finishes, a 9th place in the second race and 5th place in the fourth race. The Bucs managed to climb into a tie for first with CBA with wins by the Neubelts in races 5 & 6 and 3rd-place finishes by Garth & Peterson in races 7 & 8. At that point Princeton HS trailed by only two points. RBR led CBA by four points after 12 races, but Lutz and Hurley won the next two for CBA to narrow the gap to only one point with two races remaining. Garth and Peterson finished 4th in the next race to Maes / Lavin's 7th, which gave the RBR duo a little breathing room going into the finale’. RBR and CBA dueled throughout the last race, with the CBA pair finishing one place ahead of RBR, but it wasn't enough to close the four-point deficit, making RBR the regatta winner.

The victory caps off a remarkable year for the Bucs sailing team. On April 13th, RBR finished third at the NJ qualifier regatta for the national championships, and on April 27th they placed second at the Connecticut State Championships held at the US Coast Guard Academy, losing to Greenwich HS by only one point. Two weeks later, on May 4th, the RBR girls’ team was victorious at the New Jersey State Girls' HS Championships. Skipper Caroline Garth teamed up with crews Gabi and Domi Neubelt to win that regatta over a 10-team field.

Congrats and best of luck to the graduating seniors who are going on to compete in the college ranks. RBR's Max Neubelt will sail for the US Merchant Marine Academy, and Caroline Garth will matriculate to The University of Pennsylvania. Gabi Neubelt is deciding between USMMA and Old Dominion University. Princeton's Scott Barbano will sail for perennial collegiate powerhouse Tufts University, and Xander O’Grady is headed to Lake Forest College near Chicago. CBA's Jonathan Lutz and Toms River South’s Shelby Jacobs will sail for St. Mary's College of Maryland, and South’s Jimmy Kennedy is heading to Roger Williams, also top-echelon sailing schools.