Ohio State Wins the 2017 Ball State Fling

With the second week of tournaments coming to an end the Great Lakes Conference wrapped up yet another beautiful Ball State Fling. With 13 teams and over 200 hundred skiers coming to Pleasant Shores in Van Wert, Ohio we knew that we were in store for a great weekend. The weather was uncharacteristic for a college tournament with highs in the 80’s and sun all weekend long, it was a nice change compared to the cold snowy tournaments the Midwest has become infamous for.

Night slalom!

Friday night kicked off with practice sets pulled by the the host sight under the lights. This is a unique opportunity for many skiers to take a night set. With skiers being pulled until 3am, this may have been the most skiers we have had taking night sets ever. With the addition of some extra lights we were able to pull some night jumpers this year.

“night slalom was a ton of fun!”, “it was the highlight of the weekend!”

— Tabi & Nolan, Central Michigan University

Bright and early making turns!

Rolling into Saturday morning we started bright and early with a 7am start with women’s A team slalom. With beautiful weather we had some great scores posted with Kristen Dammeyer from The Ohio State University taking the win with ½ buoy at 32 off. Moving into the men’s A slalom was an exciting event with some great spills and scores, with Kevin Dammeyer from The Ohio State University winning the event wit 4 buoys at 35 off.

Getting tricky

We continued the day with men’s and women’s trick. B team was brought to another lake where they were given additional time and coaching which is awesome to see new skiers being developed. A-team trick ran fast and furious with tons of great scores in the book and lots of excitement on the water. Jose Luis Tejada of Purdue won men’s trick with an impressive score of 1890. On the other end of the lake Kristen “K Money” Dammeyer won women’s trick with a huge score of 1710. We wrapped up the day with B team slalom with many taking advantage of the mini course that was introduced to college skiing this year. The mini course helps new skiers get the rhythm of running the course.

Jump Day!

We had another early morning for jump day on Sunday starting with women’s A. Jump is always a crowd pleaser from the long jumps to the hard falls its endless entertainment you never know what is going to happen when the next person goes to launch off big red. Sara Condra of Michigan State University took home the win in women’s jump flying 57 feet.

the weather was fantastic, boats were sparkling, and the collegiate ski family was on the lake in full force

— Bill, Western Michigan University

Men’s jump kept the excitement going with some interesting landings by Erik Lukkari of University of Michigan and Trace Mollet from Bowling Green both riding away on a single jump ski. Jose Luis Tejada of Purdue won jump with an impressive 112 foot jump. We wrapped up the tournament with B team jump where we had many first time jumpers land from many different schools. For some it was there first time seeing a jump. Four Michigan State skiers had their first tournament land ever, adding to every Spartan landing a jump this weekend.

Team Results

Here is how all the teams stacked up after all the skiing was done:

1. Ohio State University
2. Miami University
3. Michigan State University

   

4. University of Michigan
5. Purdue University
6. University of Cincinnati
7. Bowling Green State University
8. Grand Valley State University
9. Ohio University
10. University of Dayton
11. Indiana University
12. Western Michigan University
13. Central Michigan University

As always you can view the full scorebook on USA Water Ski’s website.

See you at the Great Lakes Conference Championships

With another great tournament in the books for the Great Lakes Conference we are all looking forward to next weekend at the Great Lakes Conference Championships to ski our hearts out and see who will claim the spots to ski at Midwest Regionals!

2017 Ball State Fling Photos

Photos courtesy of Sara Condra and the Michigan State Water Ski Team.

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