{"id":252787,"date":"2026-04-30T18:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T18:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252787\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T18:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T18:21:12","slug":"usf-womens-sailing-places-second-in-saisa-championship-secures-national-championship-bid-the-crows-nest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252787\/","title":{"rendered":"USF Women\u2019s Sailing places second in SAISA Championship, secures\u00a0National\u00a0Championship bid\u00a0 \u2013 The Crow’s Nest"},"content":{"rendered":"

USF has a chance to win its first national title in program history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By Dominic Feo\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the familiar currents of St. Petersburg, the University of South Florida Women\u2019s sailing team placed second at the South Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association (SAISA) Women\u2019s Team and Fleet Championship Races on April 12.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0regatta secured\u00a0USF a spot in the College Sailing Women\u2019s Fleet National Championship, which USF St. Petersburg will also host from May 15-18.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before the\u00a0competition, USF\u2019s Division A Fleet Race starters Kailey Warrior and Madisen Hamai told\u00a0The Crow\u2019s Nest\u00a0about the advantages of sailing in local waters.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of these teams are coming from up north where they have to sail in dry suits every practice,\u201d Hamai said. \u201cBut coming down here, it\u2019s going be really hot, and we\u2019re used to practicing in this kind of weather, so hopefully that\u00a0gives us a little bit of an edge.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Warrior was thankful for not having to travel for the national\u00a0championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally, when we travel for a\u00a0national championship, we take six to eight people and we\u2019ve got that little squad, but we\u2019re going to have our whole team there, all of our coaches, lots of faculty, and our own vets,\u201d Warrior said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The University of South Florida\u2019s St. Petersburg campus will also be a stopover for the global 2027 Ocean Race\u00a0
Photo by Kendall\u00a0Bulkiewicz\u00a0| The Crow\u2019s Nest<\/p>\n

Teamwork is one of the many values head\u00a0coach\u00a0Allison\u00a0Jolly\u00a0has\u00a0taught\u00a0each team since taking the job in 2004. Warrior, however, believes this year\u2019s team chemistry grew off the water.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn previous years, the team has been a little bit more separated into different groups, but I think that\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0all close enough to be able to talk to one another and support one another with whatever\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0going through,\u201d Warrior\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After winning gold at the 1988 Summer Olympics in South Korea,\u00a0Jolly \u2014\u00a0a St. Petersburg\u00a0native \u2014\u00a0returned home to coach USF.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her combined experience as an athlete and coach earned Jolly a spot in the U.S. National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s told us all that she was really bad at starting as a sailor, but she obviously is a gold medalist, and she got through that,\u201d Warrior said. \u201cIf you do really bad at the beginning, it\u2019s hard to come back, but she\u2019s taught us to be resilient.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The University of South Florida\u2019s St. Petersburg campus will also be a stopover for the global 2027 Ocean Race\u00a0
Photo by Kendall\u00a0Bulkiewicz\u00a0| The Crow\u2019s Nest<\/p>\n

Four years after joining the team as a walk-on, there is nowhere else Hamai would rather end her collegiate career.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[The National Championship] is going be really pretty, and it\u2019s really nice that I get to end my college sailing career like with a home regatta,\u201d Hamai said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t Post Views: 100 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\"More<\/a>
Written by: Dominic Feo<\/a> on April 30, 2026.
Last revised by: Julia Ferrara<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"USF has a chance to win its first national title in program history.\u00a0 By Dominic Feo\u00a0 In the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-252787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}