SUNY Maritime

Career Record Years: 4

National Appearances ICSA: 1

All-Conference Selections MAISA: 1

National Championships: 1 (2018)

Zach Runci joined the Maritime waterfront staff as the assistant sailing coach in the Fall of 2013, and will now be entering his sixth season as the team's head coach beginning in the fall of 2019.

The 2018-19 season was the best year for Runci and the Privateers since 1983 as the offshore team won the McMillan and Kennedy Cup to become national champions. 

During the 2017-18 season, Runci helped the team to a National Ranking as high as 16th following the fall season. Over the course of the year the team had eight top-five finishes including a team victory at the Stony Brook Cup in the spring season. The team had 17 top-ten finishes, and also qualified for the MAISA Championships in both the fleet racing and team racing seasons. 

In his third term as head coach the team had a trio of top-five finishes throughout the season. The team hosted three events throughout the fall and spring seasons and finished in the top-nine in each of the events including a season-best third place finish at the Luce Regatta in mid-October. At the end of the season, the Privateers fell one position shy of qualifying for nationals with a 10th place finish at the America Trophy.

During the 2015-16 season, in his second term as head coach, Runci guided the Privateers team to six top-five finishes, which also included a win at the Laser North 1 during the first month of the season. Maritime finished ninth at the Atlantic Coast Championships to close out the fall, while Maritime finished sixth at the War Memorial in the spring and followed that up with a 12th place finish at the America Trophy.

Following the conclusion of his second season as head coach, Runci had Caitlin Cummings '18 selected as an All-MAISA Crews following the sophomores efforts all season, the first such selection under his coaching tenure.

In his first season as head coach, Runci led the Privateers to one of their most successful campaigns in recent program history as the team was nationally ranked on several occasions through the 2014-15 season.

Over the course of her first season, the team had six top-five finishes, including a victory at the Admiral Moore Team Race hosted by Maritime in late March. The team also also finished third at the War Memorial, also hosted by Maritime in early November. The year culminated with an appearance at the ICSA Fleet Race National Championships held in Newport, R.I.

During his first season on the staff, Runci helped guide the Privateer sailing squad to several Top-3 finishes at events throughout the year including the Laser North 1 Event at Kings Point, N.Y., the MAISA Men's Singlehanded Championships in Annapolis, Md., the Kings Point Dinghy Open, the Pirate Team Race in Virginia, as well as the Team Race Challenge in Geneva, N.Y. In addition to those events Runci led sophomore Nick Valente to a top 5 finish at singlehanded nationals, the school’s first appearance in over a decade.

In addition to the team success, Runci helped oversee the a pair of All-MAISA selections as Valente, and senior Paige Conlin were selected by the All-MAISA committee in early May, 2014.

Runci came to Maritime, bringing a strong background in collegiate and high school sailing as well as small boat racing experience in a variety of different classes.

In his free time, Runci competes in multiple different one-design classes as well as team racing as often as possible. Since moving to Long Island, Runci has become an active participant at the Oakcliff Sailing Center in Oyster Bay, N.Y., where he has gotten the bug for match racing winning multiple grade 3 match race regattas and been introduced to keelboat distance racing.

A 2013 graduate of Old Dominion University, Runci brings four years of experience having raced in the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA). While at ODU, Runci helped the team qualify for four national championship events between the 2009 and 2013 campaigns.