By Wendi Reardon Price
Staff Writer
wprice@mihomepaper.com
CLARKSTON — Clarkston High School students on Team 1 and Team 6 took their places at the starting line for the final race during the 17th Annual RUSH Regatta at Deer Lake Beach, July 28.
But Team 1 hit a snag before they could row to victory – its cardboard and duct tape boat began taking on water in the middle. It was sinking before they could pass the starting flags.
As the boat’s port side tipped into the water, Team 6 rowed out of the starting gates and off to win Team Rush 27 Robotics’ annual event.
Team 6, comprised of Finn Berard, Gianna Green, Kayleigh McClellan, Zachary Bosse and Emma Ontiveros, finished winning the RUSH Regatta Cup, which goes to the team earning the highest combined score in the three categories – Cash Crusaders, Enterprising and Seaworthy Sailors and Wicked Fast Watercraft.
“The grand champions win bragging rights and privileges on Team RUSH all year long,” said Coach Kyle Hughes.
The Cash Crusaders Award was presented to the team that collects the most sponsorship funds. This year it went to Ameera Abdellateef, Marshall Williams, Milo Dost, Jack Klenow, Jakob Qullen and Jacob Schmitz.

“This group brought in whopping $16,587 collected,” said Hughes. “They did an absolutely fantastic job raising money for Team RUSH for the 2024-2025 year.”
Team 5 received the Enterprising & Seaworthy Sailors Award, which is presented to the team that has the best theme, and concisely and precisely describes how their boat was engineered and constructed.
“Each team’s business structure and prowess was evaluated during their entrepreneurship review,” Hughes shared. “At the race, the judges ranked the teams based on how well teams could document the process as well as articulate to the judges their entrepreneurial and engineering summer plan. No technology was allowed on the beach to assist in the delivery of their presentation. They had to provide two copies each of both their business and engineering presentations on the beach. Gracious professionalism was also included on both Engineering and Entrepreneurial Rubrics.
The winners were Noah Gedraitis, Kierston Furness, Jacob Smith, Graham Zielke and Billy Edwards.
Team 5 were Enterprising and Seaworthy Sailors, which is scored on presentation skills, discussing their engineering prowess and their entrepreneurial expertise with judges before the race.
Wicked Fast Watercraft was presented to the team that wins the actual regatta race. The winners were Zach Torres, Sam DeKoninck, Aubrey Spencer, Eshan Patel and Ryan Leininger.
Hughes shared there was a lot of excitement from everyone after having to wait an additional two weeks due to high levels of bacteria in Deer Lake.
“The students took a mandatory ‘break’ not allowing them to get a two week advantage on other teams,” she said. “July 28 was our day! The sun was shining, the lake was calm, it was a great day.”
This year the themes included: Pitbull (Mr. Worldwide), FORTNITE: Battle Royale, Scooby-Doo, Disney Pixar’s “Cars,” Steampunk and Disney’s “Emperor’s New Groove.”
“The students of RUSH work very hard over the summer on this event,” said Hughes. “On behalf of all of Team RUSH, we would like to thank the over 250 sponsors to make this a reality. We thank you for helping kids learn the process of fundraising, being patient and kind when they called, and especially for supporting us. We hope we made you proud.”
For more information on Team RUSH, please go to www.teamrush27.net or contact at teamrush27@clarkston.k12.mi.us.

  Robotics, Rush Regatta, Team RUSH 27