Congratulations to the high school sailing team with Olympia Community Sailing on their 2025 NWISA Fleet Race District Championships win! The team, comprised of Olympia High School students from freshmen to seniors, is a top-ranked team, having won 5 of the last 10 state/district championships. It’s a club sport, supported by Olympia Community Sailing. The Capital High School sailing team also qualified for the championships.
Olympia High School sophomores Simone Reck, Cate Griffith and Kaden Kim; juniors Alan Timms, Alyssa Leong and Ingrid Christiansen; and seniors Liam Taylor, Caliegh Mingay represented their school as a team at the 2025 North West Interscholastic Sailing Association (NWISA) Fleet Race District Championships.
It’s a big deal to make it to the championships. “Only 20 teams out of 60-plus qualify for district championships,” shares Sara Hanavan, NWISA president and a US sailing instructor trainer. “There are three ranking regattas over the spring season. If a Team ranks 1-20, they earn a berth to district championships. Both Olympia and Capital ranked in the top 20.”
The district championships are made up of 26 races that Olympia High School competed in. “The format is simple,” explains Sarah. “Our A Division Team goes out for 2 races, led by Alan Timms. Then our B Division Team goes out for 2 races, led by Liam Taylor. Each Division completed 13 races for a total of 26. A and B division scores are combined. Alan and Liam also each won their divisions.”
“Winning districts was an incredible feeling and it felt very deserved,” shares Alan Timms, a junior at Olympia High School and member of the sailing team as A Division skipper. “The team worked so hard and we wanted it so much more than any other team there, which allowed us to support one another and trust that it would work out.”
Olympia High School Sailing Team: A History of Success
The sailing teams – consisting of a sea team, junior varsity and a varsity team – compete in the fall and spring. This year Sarah says they competed in over 15 regattas, traveling as far south as Los Angeles and as far north as Bellingham.
The team placed well throughout the season, including coming in second at the Women’s Championships and tying for first at the Keelboat Championships, both of which took place in the fall season. “In the Spring our strategy was to keep our ‘cards close to our chest’ so to speak and not push to win every event, but rather focus on building our strategy,” shares Sarah. “Our plan worked and we executed it flawlessly at the championships, winning by an almost historic 62-point lead.”
That almost historic lead they were chasing was their own record, set in 2024, when the Olympia High School sailing team won the NWISA Fleet Race District Championships with a 67-point lead. The team won in 2021, 2029 and 2018 as well. They placed second in 2022 and fourth in 2023, with 2020 being cancelled due to COVID.
“I was really excited to see how our whole team pulled everything together for the qualifier,” shares Simone Reck, Olympia High School sophomore and sailing team member. “We’ve worked hard to create a supportive team culture and I feel like that was the key to our success. We didn’t let the wins or the losses get to our heads. And, even though we were performing well, we were still willing to try lots of new techniques to get around the course faster each time.”
The Olympia High School Sailing Team will compete at the High School Sailing Nationals at Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut, May 31 through June 1, 2025.
Read more local high school sport stories here.
