Photos by Sailing Energy, Quinn Wilson and Tim Duren
A blizzard blankets Shoreview, Minnesota, one day during Lara Dallman-Weiss’ senior year of high school. She watches the frigid snow pile up, horrified that she has made a huge mistake.
Earlier that year, she had accepted a running scholarship to the University of Washington-Eau Claire, a college near her hometown.
As the blizzard descends, a nagging worry becomes a pounding warning sign.
She recalls her safety option; a backup school selected in case something happens that is out of her control or if she decides she doesn’t want to stay in a place prone to blizzards like the one that has fueled this existential crisis.
She calls her dad, looking for advice between the state university or the unknown: a liberal arts school, Eckerd College, tucked into a nook along Florida’s Boca Ciega Bay.
Thinking on her feet, she circles back to a phone call with a childhood friend, with whom she grew up sailing. He is enrolled at Eckerd, where he basks in the sunshine and the seemingly endless supply of sea breezes. Dallman-Weiss turns back toward the blizzard, inhales a nervous gulp and makes her choice.
After calling both schools to alert them of her dilemma, she inhales, a little scared, but confident. She picks a sailing career at Eckerd, one of the colleges highlighted in Loren Pope’s book Colleges That Change Lives.
Dallman-Weiss grew up sailing on Minnesota’s White Bear Lake. The family-friendly pocket of water is loved by her dad, who passes on his self-taught knowledge of sailing, and her mom, who enjoys relaxing on the shore.
It is not love at first instruction. Dallman-Weiss despises the activity, but a familiar phrase from her mom plays on repeat: “If you start something, you have to finish the season.”
The 6-year-old stays strong, pushing through those newcomer hiccups. Then, she realizes she does, in fact, like the sport, but she dislikes being alone. Her coach adds another kid to her nautical adventure, and they set sail toward success.
“I love sailing, but it was also kind of hard that it was such a boy-heavy sport. There weren’t that many girls. What I loved when I got older and got my own boat was bringing my friends from other sports. I didn’t care if we were finishing last in races,” Dallman-Weiss recalls. “I didn’t care about results when I was younger. I just wanted to be with my friends.”
That constant craving for community led the young athlete to victory at Eckerd. She admits the unbreakable bond formed between the students (on and off water) became her favorite part of her college experience—along with the charming campus.
When she enrolled in 2008, sailing was a waterfront activity, rather than a varsity sport. She competes in the open (co-ed) sailing team, the women’s sailing team, the team races and the match race team, diversifying and amplifying her résumé. “I do really well under pressure,” she says with a laugh, reflecting on her college career. “So, when it's a regatta that counts, that's when I thrive.”
Dallman-Weiss led the Tritons to the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association Championships (ICSA) for three consecutive years with the strongest finish in 2010, where she ranked third in the A division and the team earned sixth place overall. Eckerd recognized her outstanding performances, crediting her with the Skipper of the Year for both the women’s and open team in 2011 and Crew of the Year two years in a row.
Her alma mater awards greatness long after its students flip their tassels. In 2022, the school inducted her into the Eckerd College Athletics Hall of Fame Class, a full-circle moment where she mingled with bright-eyed students hoping to follow in her footsteps.
This spring, Dallman-Weiss, who now lives in Miami, will travel back to Eckerd to accept the Margaret Rigg Outstanding Alumna Award, an accomplishment reserved for graduates showcasing resounding leadership in their professional lives. Through her mix of her constant contact with alumni and current students, assisting varsity sailing coach Ward Cromwell with recruitment and spearheading Women Leading Ed (education)—a coaching platform helping women in education develop healthy workplace habits—make her a perfect fit to receive the honor.
“I want to help the team succeed,” she offers, emphasizing her pledge of loyalty to Eckerd, where she will deliver the 2026 commencement speech.
Today, the college’s sailing team has an open team with 13 members. Though the team is small, their wins are big. The varsity team is fresh off a second-place finish in the South Atlantic Conference of the Intercollegiate Sailing Association (SAISA) Open Fleet Championships and a top four placement in the SAISA Team Race Championships.
“The hope is to go into the spring season and finish in the top four in the SAISA conference again for team racing. A high goal would be to finish in the top two again, which would give us an automatic bump to the open ICSA national finals, which are going to be held in St. Pete this spring,” explains Cromwell, his voice rising with a flash of enthusiasm. “For the fall, the hope would be to start to develop a women’s team while continuing to perpetuate our open team.”
Dallman-Weiss, who lived downtown during her junior and senior years and kept her boat in her backyard, reminisces about an outing with fellow Olympian and the current varsity coach of the women’s sailing team at the University of South Florida, Allison Jolly (featured on page 28). One windy day, she and Jolly set sail, curious if the two would make a favorable team. Following instructions from the more seasoned Jolly, Dallman-Weiss set up the sails. With one glance at the hoisted canvas, a delightful expression washed over Jolly’s face.
“You have a great eye for it,” she remembers Jolly offering, in the form of a warm compliment. “It gave me a lot of confidence.”
She pauses for a smile before adding that in 1988, Jolly won a gold medal in the same boat she sailed in during the first Women’s 470.
As Dallman-Weiss advanced in her sport, that strong team atmosphere propelled her past collegiate-level competition to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021 due to COVID-19 measures.
The Eckerd alum competed alongside Nicole Barnes in the 470 Women’s, where they ranked 12th place. Three years later, Dallman-Weiss followed up her 2021 performance in the 2024 Paris games, this time with Stuart McNay. The duo placed 13th in the first-ever Olympic mixed-gender dinghy.
She is preparing for the 2026 Olympic Qualifiers with new teammate, Justin Callahan, a Harvard senior and Miami native. The pair train in Miami and are gearing up for the 2026 470 World Championship in Japan in August.
“I’ve got my sights set on the home games. I think there’s nothing more special than the opportunity of the home games in front of me and the fact that it was [also in] LA in '84 is really cool. I’m so inspired by that,” she enthuses. “I really am enjoying the new teammate that I am sailing with, that partnership and growing as a team. I want nothing more than a gold medal. That’s what I’m chasing.”
To learn more, visit larasails.com or eckerd.edu
