It's official. The University of St. Thomas Club Sailing Team is back. With the help of our fearless leaders, Rachel Bartel and Greg Bittle, we have emerged from the ashes of our predecessors fighting like never before. Getting here, to the spring season of our "inaugural year" was no small feat. Thriving off the leftover team funds (from 2015) and the undying spirit of young sailors hoping to compete, we flourished.
Our President, founder, and Captain, Rachel Bartel (sophomore) came to us from the Orono High School sailing team. Leading the way she is helping us gain traction, set up regattas, and is working behind the scenes to make this season possible. Leading alongside Rachel, is Vice President and Captain Greg Bittle (freshman) who previously sailed for Minnetonka high school. Greg has been working on putting together Chalk Talks to bring sailing off the water and into the classroom. Together they have created a community and team spirit unlike any I've seen.
For our first regatta of the fall, we sent our captains along with Meriah Kirschstein (sophomore) and Philip Thoma (junior) to Madison, Wisconsin where they finished in 7th place overall (09/11/21). After that, we practiced hard at Wayzata Sailing under the instruction of Matt Zupon, Matt Thompson, Jackson Conell, and Lars Hansen, where our teams learned a lot about one another and a few of us on how to not fall in the lake. There were two additional fall regattas at Northwestern where we finished 3rd (10/16/21) and 7th (10/30/21).
Stay up to date with future scores here.
Since the end of fall season, we have kept ourselves busy with setting the club up for future successes, hoping to lay a sturdy foundation and build team relationships. We held a bonfire, a holiday party, and some executive board movie nights. We also went to Loaves and Fishes for our fall service project, spearheaded by Social Chair, Conall Lynch. We got our Facebook and Instagrams up and running with the help of Social Media Chair, Zoe Schearer, our first order of apparel delivered just in time for the holidays. We are working to broaden our dryland (education and outreach) as well as prepare to host the Tommie Cup at Wayzata on 05/07/22. That's right, the Tommie Cup is back.
With the help of our Treasurer, Meriah Kirschstein, our CrowdFunder was launched on Friday 03/04/22. The proceeds from this fundraising effort will go to reducing the cost of sailing tuition, aiding our travel teams with board, food, and registration costs, as well as enabling us to keep the website running smoothly for years to come.
Stay updated with our upcoming adventures by following @ustsailing on Instagram, by liking UST Sailing on Facebook, and by joining our Facebook "Supporters" group.