With the spring season officially underway, we'll be spotlighting a Michigan sailor each week alumni and friends can get to know the team!
Sailor: Karinne Smolenyak, '14
Hometown: Charlevoix, MI
Major: Political Science and International Studies
Karinne started sailing at a young age, spending many vacations on her family's boat. She didn't begin dinghy racing until joining the University of Michigan Sailing Team, but has since competed in more than thirty collegiate regattas, including nationals in 2012 and semi-nationals in 2013. Her hard work and dedication to the team paid off last December when she was awarded the Most Valuable Crew award at our annual team banquet. Karinne's favorite sailing memory was attending a regatta at Stanford over spring break and sailing with "seals perched on buoys and swimming all around the boats".
Karinne is graduating a year early this May and will be sorely missed next fall, but we wish her all the best as she becomes a University of Michigan (and sailing team) alumnus!
