New London — The 2016 women's sailing national championship banner has hung on the outside of Coast Guard Academy's Billard Hall for almost a year now.

It has weathered over time and looks a bit worn.

The same can't be said for the Bears, who look every bit as a serious national championship contender as last spring.

For the fourth straight year, the coed and women's teams qualified for the national championships, both located in Charleston, S.C. The Bears enter the women's event, which begins Tuesday and culminates with finals on Friday, as the top-ranked team. The coed competition runs May 31 through June 2.

"We definitely still have the drive to go do it again," junior Dana Rohde said.

Added pressure comes with the program's lofty status.

"In some ways, there's been a little bit more pressure, particularly on the women this year, because we're the defending champs," coach Brian Swingly said. "Last year, we were rising to do something the academy has never done before. Now we're almost expected to be at least in the hunt at the end of the regatta.

"So the pressure to make sure we're practicing properly and getting ourselves ready is almost even more than last year."

Swingly credits veteran team captains Nikole Barnes and Rohde, both skippers, for helping the Bears stay on course while dealing with weighty expectations. Barnes and Rohde will be making their fourth and third trip, respectively, to national competition.

"I can't believe it," Barnes said of going to four national championships. "I remember my first nationals compared to now and the difference is huge. Our team has changed so much."

Barnes, the women's national college sailor of the year in 2016, will leave the program with an impressive resume. She received the school's most outstanding senior female athlete award and achieved All-American status during her career for both women and coed sailing.

"They have done a really good job leading the team, which is really young...," Swingly said. "Our leaders had to make sure that everybody was understanding what we're trying to accomplish but also keeping things in perspective."

Barnes believes her team is ready for the national championship races.

"We already know what we have to do," Barnes said. "It's just making sure that we're mentally in the game because we've practiced so hard. ... We're extremely prepared."

The Bears will face stiff competition. The majority of the serious contenders are from the New England region. Boston College, Yale, Boston University and Brown finished behind Coast Guard in the top five in the New England Women's Championship on April 22.

Swingly feels good about his team's chances to repeat.

"They are 100 percent mentally ready to go," Swingly said. "We've been physically ready to go for a long time. We're the only women's team that has played at that high of a level for a long time, so I think they've got all that experience under their belt."

Coast Guard enters the coed competition as the 11th ranked team in the country. The Bears have placed second two straight years.

"If the conditions are favorable to us, I think we can win," Swingly said.

The Bears are familiar with the venue, having raced in Charleston late last fall and again in March. It also will be a homecoming for Rohde, who's from Savannah, Ga., and sailed those area waters before.

Both coed and women's national championships will feature two days of semifinals, with the top nine teams from each of the two divisions — eastern and western — advancing to the finals.

The Bears prefer to let their performance do the talking.

"They know we're there to win," Swingly said. "We won't talk about that at all. We talk about how we're going to approach race one and how we think we need to set up our boats for the conditions. ... It's all about just sailing the boat well."

If the Bears are successful, they can replace the 2016 banner with a new one.

"It always feels good," Rohde said about seeing the banner on Ballard Hall. "The academy supports us so much, which is awesome."

g.keefe@theday.com