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Midwest Collegiate Water Ski Association Newsletter
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Summer is here and it is sweet.
The time of the year that we have all been waiting for; ski season! A great way to prepare yourself for collegiate skiing and to support our sport is to ski summer tournaments. Check out the Midwest Guide for some local tournaments!
All Stars Wrap Up
Written and Contributed by Jon Bice
Sunshine at Shortline Lakes: 2010 Collegiate All Stars
The 2010 Collegiate All Stars tournament has now come and gone as the battle of Midwest vs. East vs. West vs. South Central took place at Shortline Lake in Elk Grove, CA on May 22nd and 23rd. Team Midwest was comprised of 24 finely-tuned athletes that competed over the two day span against the top ten individual skiers for each event from the East, West and South Central. Collegiate All-Stars is a very unique event for collegiate skiing in that it is the only tournament skiers qualify individually for instead of as a team. Because of this, we often get to see some new faces at All-Stars from teams that didn’t qualify for Regionals or Nationals.
Skiers, supporters and Alumni all gathered in Elk Grove on Thursday and Friday to kick off the annual event. Some flying and some driving, everyone arrived safe and sound and ready to compete early Saturday. Saturday began with Men’s Slalom followed by Women’s Slalom. The sun was shining and Shortline Lake was glistening. Chief Driver Will Bush, world-renowned boat driver, had the slalom paths as tight as an arrow for the first event of the weekend. Team Midwest put up a good fight and ended up 2nd place in Men’s and Women’s slalom behind the West. Top finishers for the Midwest Men were Matt Knafla from Iowa State in 6th place with a half @ 35 off, Paul Tierney from Missouri State in 5th with 3 @ 35 off and Tyler Lorenz from UW-Madison in 4th place with 4.25 @ 35 off. The top Men’s slalom score was a tie of 3.5 @ 38 off from Storm Selsor of Arizona State and the tournament director of the weekend Brian Detrick. On the Women’s side, the top Midwest scores came from 2 ties. One tie for 9th place with a score of 4 @ 22 off for Iowa’s Maddy Baldwin and Minnesota’s Jane Erickson and another tie for 5th place with a score of 2 @ 32 off for Ball State’s Kayla McClure and UM-Flint’s Whitney Smith. The top score for Women’s Slalom came from Amanda Amos from Arizona State with a score of 1.5 @ 35 off.
After a brief intermission and some bouy changes, we moved into the trick event. After Men’s and Women’s slalom Team Midwest was in second place overall behind Team West and looking to make up some ground. Top Midwest women scores came from Whitney Smith in 10th with a score of 940pts, Jane Erickson in 8th with 1060 pts. and Maddy Baldwin in 5th with 1560 pts. The top women’s trick score again came from Arizona State skier Amanda Amos with a 2,210 point trick run. And from the Midwest Men, we had two scores in the top five and five in the top ten. In 6th place putting in Team Midwest’s 3rd best score was Steven Cyra with a score of 1310. And in the top five we had Matt Knafla in 5th with a score of 1890 and our top finisher was Tyler Lorenz in 3rd with a score of 2480. The top Men’s Trick Score was 3820 from Skip Wintter of Walnut Creek, CA. The women came in 2nd to the west by just 150 pts and the Team Midwest Men took down the mighty west by 155 points for first place! Great Tricking!
At the conclusion of Men’s Trick, it was time to call it a day and get ready for the banquet being held at the Detrick’s home on the North end of Shortline Lake. With a bit of rain on the horizon we moved all the tables and chairs on to the patio and began the feast. After the meal there were awards given for the Slalom and Trick Events and it was time for the night festivities to begin!
After some changes to the itinerary, it was time for Sunday and the big event of JUMP! Running alternating Men’s and Women’s the jump event lasted over six hours! Team Midwest was in second to Team West and hoping to jump all PB’s and have back-to-back All-Star titles. As the distances were tallied and the three event bags were being packed up, the top Team Midwest Women’s scores came in as follows. With a 71 foot jump, Jane Erickson came in 8th just one foot behind UW-Madison’s Heather Donen placing 7th with a jump of 72 feet. And in 2nd place with a leap of 106 feet was Kayla McClure. And just to make sure everyone knew Amanda Amos was the undisputed Women’s Champion, she won the jump event as well with a leap of 138 feet. Way to go Ladies!
The Men’s Jumpers put up some great scores as well with over half the Men’s Jumpers hitting the century club or better. Top three Midwest jumps were Steven Cyra with a 114 which tied him for 6th place, Ian Arvesen of Iowa State put up a huge 128 putting him in 5th and our top jumper Tyler Lorenz with a 146 earning him a 3rd place behind Skip Wintter with a 156 and the 2010 All-Stars Jump Champion Storm Selsor with a leap of 165.
Team Midwest Women finished second again behind the West and Team Midwest Men took home the Jump event by defeating the west by just 80 points.
Overall, Team Midwest had two Men on the podium. Steven Cyra finished 4th overall and Tyler Lorenz finished 2nd overall. The UW Badgers certainly showed up to the national event! For the Women, we had three women in the top 10 with Kayla McClure finishing 9th overall and Jane Erickson and Maddy Baldwin with another tie for 7th place overall.
At the end of the day, with a valiant effort made by all, Team Midwest took second place to the host region, Team West by just 770 points. Which can only mean one thing…..Cris Kodiak, Midwest Region Chairman will be dressed up by Harley Wallace at the 2010 Collegiate Nationals this fall. A big thanks goes out to Brian Detrick for all of his hard work putting this tournament together and to the Families of Shortline Lake for hosting the event. And thanks to all, competitors and supporters, who made the big trip West this year, it was one to remember for sure!
We look forward to the 2011 All-Stars as we return to Ahoskie, North Carolina (where Team Midwest dominated last year) to visit our friends at Beaver Lake and take on the three other Regions once again!!
For complete results of 2010, please visit www.NCWSA.com
Two Midwest Skiers Get Married!
Laura Wiacek and Cale Burdick got married on June 6th in Michigan! The bride looked stunning and the groom looked very handsome as well! Cale and Laura met through college skiing and it was a ski story romance. Congrats to the Burdicks!
What can you ski on?
Recently Steven Greene from Illinois State University proved that you can ski on almost anything, by skiing on a 2x4. And if that is not impressive enough, he gave the signal to drop the throttle, stepped off and began to barefoot.
What can you ski on?
Milwaukee Pro Tour Stop
Written and Contributed by Tristan Hansen, Dolphin Wetsuits
The Malibu Open will be in Milwaukee this summer. The tournament will be Friday, August 6th and Saturday, August 7th. The main events for the tournament are Men’s Jump, Women’s Slalom, Men’s Slalom and Freestyle Jump. Qualifying will run on Friday, main events will run during the day Saturday and finals will be under the lights on Saturday night. There are cash prizes for all 4 events.
We are really excited about this tournament being here in Milwaukee and have recieved a great response from the city and the county parks commission. Milwaukee parks are some of the best in the country and Veterens Memorial park is one of the gems for the system. The lake the event will be on is about 100 yards off the beach of Lake Michigan and is protected from the wind by tree lines. The lake is natural but looks like a man made lake in the heart of the city and is located within walking distance of the downtown business district and is just a few hundred yards from the Calatrava art museum.
The county has also set up a cancer walk for that Saturday, which walks around the lake and brings in about 5000 people and adding those people to the numbers that the lake front attracts on an average weekend there could be over 10,000 people in the area of the event. In addition to the parks 2 lakefront resturants there will be concession stands with beer and food as well.
We already have most of the top skiers in the country registered for the event so we will get to watch the best of the best on the water.
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milwaukee lakefront - Google Maps
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Picture of the newsletter
What’s the easiest way to move a jump? With a Hummer that runs of vegetable oil of course! Sam Massa, an east coast skier, owns a yellow Hummer that runs completely on vegetable oil. Sam simply pulls his Hummer into any fast food restaurants and fills up! Now tell me that that wouldn’t be the best way to save money on your way to tournaments?!?!
Join MCWSA on Facebook!
Midwest Regionals
Hosted by Waters Edge – come join the fun!
US Nationals
As many of you know, a Midwest site is holding the AWSA Nationals for the first time in 25 years!! The 68th Goode Water Ski National Championships will be held at Waters Edge in Wilmington, IL August 8 – 14, 2010. Even you do not plan on skiing, it will be a great event and a ton of fun, not to mention a lot of great skiing!
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“Picture in the morning, sun shining, its light on an absolutely still lake, fog rising from the water, neon slalom buoys perfectly aligned and a boat waiting faithfully at the dock. Can there be anything more beautiful? Not if you are looking through the eyes of a water skier.”
-Krisit Overton Johnson
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