Bloodied sailor rescued in Lake Erie during race
U.S. Sailing honors team led by collegiate sailor from Grosse Pointe Farms
Avonna Niegelsen, 21, of East Troy, Wis., remembers being covered in blood.
She kept shouting, “I can’t see. I can’t see. I can’t see.”
College athletes aboard Southbound, a J/105 sailboat, had little experience racing together and a few crew members had little experience sailing keelboats at all.
What happened on that Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, remains a vivid and terrifying memory for all.
“I wanted to panic. I thought Avonna went blind, but it was just the blood covering her eyes,” Ava Bradd, 21, of Milwaukee, Wis., told me. “I needed my EMT brain to kick in. I’ve been an EMT for three years, since age 18. Usually I can disassociate and focus on helping people. But this was different. This was my best friend.”
During a race on Lake Erie, a strong wind shift swept Niegelsen off the 34.5-foot sailboat. In the chaos of the moment, she cracked her forehead before slipping into the water.
“I was crying and hyperventilating,” she told me. “I knew there was a giant cut on my forehead and I didn’t know if the gash went into my scalp or my eye. I had my eye closed. I kept thinking, ‘I want my mom.’”
The incident left her with a wound so deep that she required 10 stitches on her face, plus an X-ray of her arm and a CT-scan of her skull. She lost use of her arm, torn up and bruised, for three weeks.
Her grandfather, a competitive sailor, sat with his head in hands while awaiting news, Niegelsen told me. He’d had a friend die from a sailing accident. “He was pretty distraught.”
Her teammates from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis., had come together to race the Lake Erie International Offshore Regatta sponsored by North Cape Yacht Club in La Salle, Mich. This was the second leg of the fourth race, which was done with only jib and main sails because of increasing wind speeds.
This is the story of how a group of college students kept their cool under the leadership of helmsman Eva Paschke and responded within minutes to a situation that could have been deadly.
The coordinated rescue was so flawless that certified race officer Duane Burgoyne, past commodore of the North Cape Yacht Club in La Salle, Mich., nominated the Marquette University Sailing Team for an Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal. Burgoyne collaborated with Dave Ryan, past commodore of Monroe Boat Club, on the paperwork provided to national U.S. Sailing officials in Bristol, Rhode Island.
The team accepted the award at Milwaukee Yacht Club on Sept. 28, 2025.
“I’m just thankful my crew both trusted me and listened to me concerning safety measures,” said Paschke, 23, of Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich., then team captain. She has raced on all five Great Lakes in 2025. She has competed in nearly a dozen races from Port Huron to Mackinac Island and Chicago to Mackinac Island.
“When you’re in a crisis situation like that, instinct truly kicks in. That’s not to say what that instinct is. It may be to freeze or cry or panic,” Paschke told me. “All you can do is try and train — either through reinforcement, education or practice — to allow your brain to bypass those options and instead kick in standard (man overboard) procedure.”
One of the most notable things about the Hansen Award is that U.S. Sailing compiles all reports and information related to an incident to educate others. These cases aren’t trivial. Rescues become the focus of seminars and safety-at-sea courses. This information will be used to save lives of future sailors.
What happened
On the day of the incident, the sky was cloudy with sustained winds of 15-18 knots. Wind blowing from land often results in friction, because the wind is obstructed by buildings, which can result in puffs. Wind was oscillating all day. Everything felt shifty, Paschke said.
Niegelsen told me she stood in the middle of the boat against the main, then she felt it shift slightly. “I thought it was a small puff of wind. I don’t remember going overboard because I think my brain blacked a lot of it out. But it seems like the boom — the horizontal pole attached to the mast that helps control the main sail — picked me up behind my shoulder blades and carried me into the lifelines …”
Lifelines, a required safety system of wire or synthetic material around the perimeter of a boat, generally prevents people from falling overboard.
In this case, Niegelsen’s lower body tangled in the lifelines while her upper body continued to move, then her head hit the side of the boat, before going overboard, she wrote in the incident report.
Paschke said in the incident report, “She then grabbed the stanchion (a metal post that holds the lifelines) with her left hand for a moment, before being dragged into the water.”
After Niegelsen went overboard, Paschke instructed crew to assume specific roles. This was key to efficiency and rapid rescue:
John Riordan, 21, of West Bloomfield, Mich., the designated bowman who managed the jib forward of the mast during the race, became a pointer who stood guard and kept eyes on his crewmate in the water. He also watched for other boats and shouted conditions to help guide maneuvering the boat. “It was important that we had our own positions and each of us did one action. We didn’t have people scrambling over each other. Everyone fell into order.”
They were among some 100 sailors from Grand Valley State University, Indiana University, Marquette University, Miami University, Michigan State University, Michigan Tech University, Ohio State University (two boats), University of Illinois and Western Michigan University. (Indiana won first overall.)
‘Gives me chills’
Ava Bradd had been trimming the jib sail and joined in pointing. Ally Younkin, 21, of Boulder, Colo., ran to get the Lifesling and threw it to Niegelsen as fast as possible. “We could see her whole forehead bleeding. I worried that maybe the bleeding was coming from her eyes. I was really scared. It gives me chills thinking about it, even now.”
Paschke immediately had radioed the man-overboard call via the hand-held radio, which is used to communicate to all racers and race organizers, and then called for the crew to furl the jib sail. She turned on the motor, and the team motor-sailed with the support of mainsail trimmer Brian Zettlemoyer, 20, of Barrington, Ill.
Paschke implemented man-overboard maneuvers to return the boat to the sailor in distress. Boat owner Lease Schock proceeded to pull Niegelsen out of the water and back onto the boat by the Lifesling.
She had been in the water for approximately three minutes.
Paschke called directions to crew on wound care, and Bradd applied pressure to Niegelsen’s head with assistance from Younkin. The team dropped sails and headed into shore.
Veteran sailors who reviewed the reports said the team executed a perfect rescue.
“I do remember after I landed in the water, I was looking at my team, and they were looking at me,” Niegelsen said. “I was swept away, like 100 yards out, and I had my life jacket on. I was floating and I watched the boat spin around, and I was able to catch the life sling.”
The life sling is a horseshoe-shaped floatie with a line that can be thrown to the man overboard. It is key part of safety training.
This team made a point to talk through man-overboard rescues twice before racing, considering high-wind conditions.
After pulling Niegelsen aboard, Younkin applied pressure to the forehead and applied gauze. They motored to land. Paramedics were waiting on shore.
Crew stayed at the ER
Teammates stayed together at Promedica Regional Medical Center in Monroe. They were more than five hours from Marquette University.
After more than six hours, hospital officials released Niegelsen — now commodore of the sailing team — and she went with the crew back to North Cape Yacht Club. Dar Burgoyne, 62, a club trustee from Ottawa Lake, had potatoes and ham waiting and then put the students on boats to spend the night.
These races are critical to the future of sailing.
“Junior sailing is the future of a sport we love,” Duane Burgoyne told me Tuesday, Nov. 25. “We promote sailing from age 8 through college. Thing is, you do not have to be wealthy to sail. If you have a passion for the sport, there is someone who will mentor you. College sailing is a club sport, not a varsity sport. Many of the members on the boat have no sailing experience. They look at this like, ‘That would be a lot of fun.’”
Rescues not uncommon on Great Lakes
Less than one year after the Neigelsen saga, Paschke took part in aiding another man-overboard rescue while racing Solution, a Farr 40 sailboat.
During the Port Huron to Mackinac race in July 2025, on Lake Huron, crashing waves swept a sailor off Trident, a Santa Cruz 70 based at the Bayview Yacht Club. Amante 2 based at Bay City Yacht Club in Michigan made that rescue.
“Having had my previous experience definitely added a depth of calm and ability in the moment,” Paschke said. “One of the reasons our recovery and rescue (on Lake Erie) was deemed so notable is that it was textbook usage of the life sling. I applied exactly what I had learned from safety-at-sea training.”
Paschke, who graduated in 2024, is working as a contractor building kitchens and painting walls when she’s not sailing.
As the daughter and niece of top Bayview Yacht Club sailors, R.C. Paschke of Grosse Pointe Farms and David Paschke of Grosse Pointe Farms, the 23-year-old is now considered a top recruit by sailors.
“She has far more situational awareness than many sailors, regardless of age. She can tell when something is about to go sideways,” said Tim Prophit, past commodore of Bayview Yacht Club and champion skipper of Fast Tango, a North American 40.
Paschke, who sailed for Grosse Pointe South High School, raced two of her five Great Lakes races in 2025 on Fast Tango, resulting in first place overall for both the Trans Superior International Yacht Race (Lake Superior) and the Whitby 100 (Lake Ontario). Her other three races, on Solution.
“If something goes sideways, whether it’s crew overboard or something broken or the weather suddenly turns to shit, you have to quickly change your sail plan to match conditions that just smacked you in the face,” Prophit said. “Getting excited or panicky is not fast or efficient and contributes zero. Having a calm brain makes for better decision making and a better response. It’s faster or safer or both.”
Unlike a lot of college sports, the threat of getting injured or being washed overboard in rough conditions or darkness is very real for sailors, he said. Veteran racers take the ability to rescue very seriously, and view the Hanson award with great honor.
‘We couldn’t get our guy back’
“I used to take man-overboard practices fairly lightly. We’d do one man-overboard in calm water on a clear, sunny day. We’d throw a fender overboard and go back,” Prophit said. “But then we had a man overboard and we couldn’t get him back. We had a knot in the spinnaker halyard — used to pull the spinnaker sail up — and it was stuck at the top of our mast. Our guy was picked up by another boat. It was 25 knots of breeze on Lake St. Clair in the broad daylight. We weren’t in the middle of Lake Michigan at 3 a.m. But we felt like we killed somebody. We couldn’t get our own guy back. We had to rely on another boat.”
This is why Eva Paschke was recognized by U.S. Sailing for her grace, strength and leadership under pressure with the support of boat owner Lease Schock, aboard the vessel.
“A calm and efficient, successful rescue could not have happened without everyone working together, because everyone’s role is important in rescue and in sailing,” she told me on Wednesday, Nov. 26. “You can have the fastest boat in the world and the most expert driver in the world, but you still won’t win if you don’t have solid crew dynamics and solid crew knowledge.”
Final thoughts
“Especially notable was the bedside manner of Ava Bradd, EMT … and my main trimmer Brian Zettlemoyer who listened to my instructions with no more response than an “understood,” handling the main just the way I needed to maneuver … “ Eva Paschke wrote in the incident report.
“The team’s feelings on the incident were mainly concern for Avonna, and for some it was a very real wake up call to the intensity and potential danger inherent to the sport of sailing … I felt terrible, the feeling of losing a crew member (overboard) under your own watch is something I never had felt before and hope to never again have to bear.”
Incident statement submitted by Neigelsen
“We were going downwind, wing on wing, since we didn’t have the spinnaker up … I remained against the boom for most of the downwind leg when I felt it start to move. The boom began to auto-gybe, and I was unable to move out of its path as it was positioned in the middle of my back. The boom picked up speed and lifted me off the deck. The boom swung from the starboard side to the port side and pinned me against the lifelines.
“My hips (sic) and legs were trapped against the lifelines while my upper body continued to move until my head hit the side of the boat, causing the rest of my body to follow. I managed to get one hand on the stanchion and then the other, but my grip didn’t hold, and I let go, ending up in the water. I was able to regain my bearings, held my hand in the air, and floated on my back to catch my breath. I noticed blood flowing down the left side of my face and closed my left eye to prevent blood from getting into it. From the water, I could see my team turning the boat around and throwing the Lifesling to me. The Lifesling was too far away to swim to, so my team began to circle behind me to bring the line closer. I was able to swim to the line and pulled myself in with the assistance of our boat owner …
“My team acted quickly and efficiently; without their swift thinking and control of the situation, I would likely have been in a much worse condition. Everyone on board and on land reacted perfectly, allowing me to get out of the water and to medical help in record time.”
More:
Fast Tango skipper appointed by Whitmer. Why it matters.
Miracle rescue after storm tosses sailor overboard during Bayview Mackinac race
Red Herring sinks in Lake Michigan
Find all Shifting Gears stories about sailboat racing here.
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Thank you for highlighting this incredible story! Extremely proud of this group of sailors and the way they handled the situation. This recognition of Eva and her crew is well-deserved!
Great article!!! Great teamwork!!! Cool heads in an emergency!!👍👍👍