Martha Hughes ‘24 and Teddy Bower ‘26 have qualified for the national championship for sailing, which will take place on Nov. 17 and 19 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Last month on Sept. 23 and 24, Bower and Hughes traveled to Pontiac, Michigan and competed hard, qualifying for the national championships. Hughes said, “We had two days of racing, the first day we won and qualified for the gold fleet and then the second day we got second in the gold fleet which qualified us for Nationals.”

Competitions in sailing are a little different than the typical competitions in the Minnesota

State High School League (MSHSL). For sailing, MN teams will compete against teams from all over the Midwest.

The team practices Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and occasionally on Fridays. They also have smaller lower stake regattas on the weekends. Regattas are what races are called in sailing. Hughes also enjoys the bonds she’s able to create because of sailing, as she said “It’s a great community of people. It’s really great to get on the water everyday after school. We practice with the Minnetonka High School team as well as Breck’s and Eden Prairie’s (high school team) so it’s fun to meet new people as well as get some fun competition on the race courses.”