Another world championship sailing regatta wrapped up with a St. Mary’s College of Maryland Alumnus crowned champion. Anthony Kotoun ’00 placed first at the 2026 Melges 24 World Championship held on Little Traverse Bay in Michigan Sept. 19 - 26.
“It’s a dream come true,” Kotoun said.
The Melges 24 World Championship is the most important annual regatta staged by the International Melges 24 Class Association. Competitors race for the Melges Performance Sailboats Trophy, a perpetual trophy first created in 1998.
Kotoun and his team were sailing his own Melges 24, Wah Gwan.
While this is not the first world championship victory in his career — he has several — the Melges 24 World Championship, where the entire field is racing the same timeless boat design, holds a special meaning.
“What separates this one is that it’s an iconic design against the best sailors in the world and it was my boat,” the career sailor said.
Hosted this year by the Little Traverse Yacht Club in Harbor Springs, Michigan, 49 boats competed. The United States had the majority of the competitors and of them, six, including Kotoun, are St. Mary’s College alumni. Jeremy Wilmot '09 finished in second place; Victor Diaz de Leon ’14 in third; Mark Ivey '99 in fifth; Kevin Jewett '95 in ninth; and Scott Nixon '93 in 17th to join Kotoun in the top 20.
Kotoun said it is great to have a group of sailors in the mix that hailed from his alma mater, including Ivey, who was his teammate and roommate at St. Mary's College, where the sailing program kicked off his professional career and many others.
“It all started there,” he said of the program and coach Adam Werblow. Kotoun had little experience sailing at the time but with the program’s consistently high level practices and regattas, “St. Mary’s turned me into who I am today.”
In 2016, Kotoun was inducted into the St. Mary’s College of Maryland Hall of Fame, the highest athletic distinction bestowed by the St. Mary's College of Maryland Department of Athletics and Recreation. He recalls leaving the 2016 Melges 24 World Championships part way through in order to get back to St. Mary's College for the ceremony, where he said he reminisced on the years of accomplishments that took place during college and post graduation.
While at St. Mary’s College, Kotoun led the Seahawks to three national championships in 1999 and 2000 – two ICSA Team Race National Championships and the 2000 ICSA Dinghy National Championship. Along with three national championships, Kotoun collected three All-American awards.
Photo caption/credit
Anthony Kotoun '00's Wah Gwan (USA 865) was crowned the overall World Champion at the Melges 24 World Championship in Harbor Springs, Michigan. Photo by @IM24CA / Zerogradinord https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
