Mackenzie Cooper added an Intercollegiate Sailing Association Team Race National Championship bronze medal to his sailing résumé in San Diego yesterday.

The skipper, 21, and his St Mary’s College of Maryland team-mates kept their cool when it mattered most, winning their final race in the medal round against Georgetown University, to pip Boston College for the remaining spot on the podium with an overall 18-7 record.

“I actually didn’t know the score going into the last race that we needed to win and I think that helped,” said Cooper, the Bermuda Red Bull Youth America’s Cup sailor.

“We just sort of knew that if we went out and stuck to our game plan that we’d end up winning, and that’s how it went. It was a really great team effort and we are so happy as a team.

“The conditions were pretty tough, there was a lot of motorboat chop and wake that we had to deal with.

“The first two days were quite light but it was nice today. We had more breeze but overall it was really choppy, which made it difficult with boats bobbing all over the place.”

The Seahawks’ bronze medal display almost never happened, as they lost the initial race against Georgetown University that was resailed on redress after one of Cooper’s team-mates suffered a breakdown on their double-handed International Flying Junior dinghy.

“We were in a winning combination at the bottom mark but my team-mate’s tiller extension broke and we ended up losing the race,” said Cooper, who led at one stage during the deciding race.

“We had to resail it because of the breakdown the first time we sailed them so there was sort of even more added pressure. It was a tough last race.”

The fifth-ranked Seahawks cruised through the preliminary round robin with an impressive 13-2 record that included victory over eventual championship winners Yale University.

“That was a huge win for us,” Cooper said. “We started really well and improved a lot from beginning to end, which was the best part of it all.”

The Seahawks posted a 4-3 record to advance from the quarter-finals to the medal round where they finished with a 1-2 record sailing against champions Yale, runners-up Georgetown University and fourth-placed Boston College.

Cooper, who competed with female crew Mariah Leffingwell, cited mental sharpness and previous experience competing at this level as key factors in his college’s podium display.

“Last time we were wide-eyed and didn’t know exactly what would happen,” the St Mary’s junior said. “But the second time around, we were a lot more prepared, calm and knowing sort of what we would face.

“The days are very long and there’s a lot of races, therefore staying mentally focused throughout the day is the most important part.

“Also, returning with most of the group from last year helped this year.”

Cooper is among Bermuda’s 15-member squad selected to compete against some of the best young sailors in the world at the Youth America’s Cup in the Great Sound next year.

Meanwhile, also competing at the US National Championship at the weekend was Cooper’s younger sibling, Chase, who placed seventh with his Tabor Academy team-mates at the Interscholastic Sailing Association Team Racing Championships in Anacostia, Washington State.

The team finished with an overall 5-6 record.

St George’s School won the two-day event for the Baker Trophy, contested in the Club Flying Junior dinghy in variable winds, with an unblemished 11-0 record, with second and third going to Newport Harbour High School and Point Loma High School.