End of School and Season Debrief
Congratulations to our graduating seniors, Reed Weston, Ally Hansen, Annabel Bridges, Lucas Quinn, and Noah Hallerman! Thanks for all your hard work over you time on the team, we will miss you very much!
We have a handful of seniors who will be staying with us next year for a semester to a full year to finish their studies and possibly even using their extra year of eligibility from covid to continue to compete on our team! We look forward to seeing what next year has in store!
We have now ended our Spring Season with the conclusion of Wild Week and Nationals! Big thanks to coach Ian Beckley and guest coach Kyle Easton for running Wild Week and preparing us not only for nationals, but also for next season! Wild Week featured lots of different conditions, allowing the team to get lots of different time practicing and working different scenarios in both the 420 and FJ. Besides sailing, the team used the opportunity of being in Madison together with no school to bond and do fun activities such as games in the park, making friendship bracelets, team dinners, going to the comedy club on state, and much more!
Nationals Recap
Women's Fleet Race Nationals
The Honey Badgers qualified for Women's Fleet Race Nationals for the first time since before the pandemic, so they were very excited to travel to the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY on May 23-26th to prove their skills against the best womens sailors in the country. The girls enjoyed a fun day in Manhattan on Monday - taking the opportunity to enjoy some site seeing before sailing began. They hung out at Bryant Park, visited St. Patrick's Cathedral and Rockafeller Center, subwayed down to The Vessel, and strolled down the High Line.
On Tuesday, racing began on time with winds coming from the North at around 10-12 knots. For the event, Mary/Emma/Carmen sailed in A, with Marissa/Sophie in B, and Sydney as an alternate. Around midday, the breeze significantly came down, and clocked around to the south east, causing an abandonment and a short postponement. Finally after the wind filled back in A and B were able to get in another set. The squad celebrated a great day of sailboat racing with some delicious Thai food in Queens.
On Wednesday, the wind was totally dead in the morning, and the team hung out onshore in postponement. Sophie even led the team in some yoga. Finally around 2:45, A division sailed out for the first set of the day, with an increasing southerly breeze. By the time B went out, breeze was on, but time was running out due to the 5pm cutoff. Spirits were quite high the whole regatta, and they were so happy to be able to sail against such talented sailors. Though they did not qualify for finals, they still went to the venue on Thursday and Friday to support/learn from our competition. On Thursday, the girls hit up Utopia Bagels beforehand, and after watching some racing headed to Brooklyn to have dinner with our teammate Teddy Winters '26. On Friday, after hanging around in the morning, the Honey Badgers split ways to head home after an incredible weekend sailing in New York.
Open Fleet Race Nationals
Reed Weston '23, Kate Thickens '23, Ellie Murphy '24, Abe Weston '25, Tina Dombrowski '23, and Charlie Herrick '26 traveled to Kings Point for the ISCA Open Fleet Race Nationals May 30th-June 2nd. The atmosphere at the US Merchant Marine Academy proved to be electric from day one, with so much excitement and anticipation in the air for all 36 teams competing in semifinals.
The first day brought heavy winds around 15 knots coming down the sound and big waves. Reed and Tina sailed in A and Charlie and Ellie in B all day. They battled and hiked hard all day in the FJs, but the fleet proved to be very competitive. Kings Point is a beautiful venue with great sailing and a great view of the city skyline, but the current and lack of shifty breeze (like back home on the lakes) can be quite confusing and difficult for midwest sailors to get a handle on.
Day two brought lighter winds and smaller waves, and the team was excited to be in the more familiar 420s for the day. Reed and Tina continued in A, but B switched between Charlie and Ellie and Abe and Kate, giving everyone the opportunity to sail and battle it out against the other great teams. Each duo was able to get their top finish of the regatta this day, Reed and Tina getting a 6th, Charlie and Ellie with an 8th, and Abe and Kate with a 15th.
Although the team battled hard and left it all out on the race course, they did not qualify for the finals. Spirits are high as they learned a lot and the team has so much potential for the future in this event. They look forward to exploring the city and watching the finals in their last few days in New York!
Summer Outlook
Although school is over, the sailing does not stop for wisco sailors! Sailors will be sailing all over the country this summer, from the coasts to the inland lakes and the great lakes. We will be sure to follow all of those and give you the results!
Our Alumni Regatta coming up in a week, and the team looks forward to hosting many past wisco sailors for a fun day of sailing 420s and sloops on Mendota, followed by a banquet and silent auction. It is sure to be a fun event with a great turnout! If you have interest or have questions about this event, contact our current Alumni Liaison at tatelbaum@wisc.edu !
After this, the remaining team boats will be stored away for the summer, and preparations for next season will begin!
Meet the Board 2023-2024!
The end of the year means beginning preparations for the next! Captains elections were held last month, selecting Seniors Ellie Murphy and Nicole Guiliani to be next years captains and tasked with electing their new board! The results are below, congrats too all the new board members and we are excited to see what you do with your positions!
Keelboat Captain: Dylan Gorman '25
Secretary: Sydney Mandell '26
Treasurer: Sam Spencer '24
Practice Captains: Marissa Tegeder '25 & Gavin Dempsey '26
Fundraising Chair: Seamus Hendrickson '25
Alumni Liaison: Sophie Lusty '24
Merchandising Chair: Ryan Tatelbaum '25
Recruitment Chair: Mary Castellini '25
Marketing Chair: Teddy Winters '26
Regatta Coordinators: Finn Tait '25 & Carmen Lineer '26
Social Chairs: Mary Daniels '24 & Iván Castañer '24
SAILOR OF THE MONTH: Sophie Lusty!
Our Sailor of the Month for the month of May is Junior Sophie Lusty!
Sophie Lusty is majoring in Biology and minoring in Environmental Studies. She grew up in Summit, New Jersey, and learned to sail Optis in summer camp at the Raritan Yacht Club in Perth Amboy, NJ. Many of her fondest childhood memories involve going out for day sails on her Dad’s beloved J30 “Belle Faster” on the Raritan Bay. Her family later spent summers in Surf City on Long Beach Island, where she sailed Lasers and c420s. She was also a captain of her high school sailing team, which is what made her sure she wanted to sail in college.
Sophie has been an active member on team, in both sailing and leadership aspects. On the board, she has been a regatta coordinator for the past two years, and will be the Alumni Liaison in the upcoming school year.
She is so grateful for the opportunities she has had sailing on the Women’s Team, and knows she has witnessed so much growth over the past few years. Her first ever college sailing regatta was actually Women’s ACC’s which she skippered. It was very far out of her comfort zone and ended up getting last. However, she got an incredible opportunity to learn from some of the best sailors in the country. Soon after this, she started crewing for Marissa, and they travelled all around the country competing in Women’s events. She said, "At the start of our time sailing together, our goal for each “out east” regatta was just to not get last in every single race. Even if we placed last in the regatta, we did not care because of how much we learned from competing against such talented sailors. Slowly but surely, we felt more “in it” with the other teams - the drills we worked hard on at practice became applicable to the actual race course, and we were learning more than ever. It really felt like all of our hard work paid off competing at Women’s Nationals this past week. In my two years of competing for the Women’s team, it was the best sailing I think we have ever done in a regatta. We finished in 15th overall, but were only 4 points away from 12th place. Being so close in scores to such talented teams was truly the most incredible feeling and the highlight of the regatta for me had to be getting a fifth place finish - something I never would have dreamed of when I started competing at Women’s events. I am so proud of my scrappy, persistent, brave, and passionate honey badgers and I’ll always cherish the memories I’ve made from sailing with these incredible women!"
Her favorite Wisco Sailing memory was competing in the2022 J/24 District 15 regatta on “What About Bob” with a group of Wisco Sailors/Alumni. They ate cold spaghetti and marinara sauce out of a plastic bag, made tie dye shirts for the event, and had an amazing time all sailing together.
This summer, she is working in Lakewood, New Jersey doing a microbiology internship and living at home on the Jersey Shore. Next semester, she is excited to sail - maybe even “tickling the sticks” (skippering) once in a while, living with her best friends, meeting the new freshmen, doing lots of yoga, and more! She looks forward to graduating in December 2023, but will stay in Madison to work and walk at graduation with her friends and class in the Spring.
Go Go Sophie!