NEW ORLEANS, La. -- The Cornell sailing team advanced to the Women's Dinghy Championship after placing fourth in the Eastern Semifinals over two days on Lake Ponchantrain. With nine teams qualifying from the 18-school field, the Big Red comfortably moved into the finals, which begins on Wednesday and will cover two more days.

Cornell's 160 points was just two out of third place, held by Navy with 158. Yale (109) held off Boston College (115) for the top spot.

The Big Red's 56 points from its B division entry led the field, with Bridget Green and Gabbi DelBello finishing the top six races on Monday and Lillian Myers and Amelia Neumann finished the seven races on Tuesday. The team was six points ahead of the Eagles in the division, earning two race victories and seven top three finishes among the 13 starts. Only one finish came outside of the top half of the field.

Cornell's A division grabbed fifth with 104 points, with Brooke Shachoy (races 1-6), Meredith Moran (7-10) and Lucija Ruzevic (11-13) as skipper and Neumann (1-8) and Jana Laurendeau (9-13) making up the crew. The group had four top five finishes, including one race win during Monday's sailing.