San Diego State Wins 2018 Skistock

The West Coast Best Coast journeyed into the desert on April 20-22, 2018 for a WoodSkistock themed tournament hosted by University of California, Los Angeles! Athletes from University of California, Los Angeles, San Diego State University, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Arizona State University, California State University, Chico, Bakersfield College, and Western Washington University all traveled to Wet Set Village in Newberry Springs, California for a weekend full of fun, peace, and water skiing!

Buoy Wrangling on Saturday Morning

Saturday morning the Eagles sounded, with the song Take It Easy waking up tent city around 7:30 am for the captains meeting with a side of warm pancakes and coffee. Per usual, men’s slalom was up first and Arizona State University absolutely demolished the field taking the 1st and 2nd place. Jackson Baines coming out on top with 1.5 buoys at 35 off followed by teammate Ryan Fitzpatrick with .5 buoys at 35 off. Bakersfield College’s Shaun Powelson takes the bronze with 4 buoys at 32 off for the 4th weekend in a row, not that anyone is counting or anything. Ben Leeds, more affectionately known as Little Ben, of San Diego State managed to cut line and skied his way to 2 buoys at 32 off followed by Ben Miller and Miles Lussi of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo both skiing into 22 off. Collin Baker of San Diego state gets the honorable mention for continuing to run the course after missing the entrance gates by a mile! Who needs them anyway?

Women’s slalom followed with nothing short of an impressive performance by the ladies of San Diego State! Freshman sensation Natalie Gaharan skied her way to first place by over an entire pass with 3.5 buoys at 32 off, she was followed by teammate and SDSU captain, Kari Mccollum, with 3 buoys at 28 off. Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo’s junior, Kaela Kalabany broke up a potential all SDSU top three by skiing her way to third place with yet another tournament personal best for herself with 3 buoys at 22 off! Hannah Gaharan of San Diego State took 4th place only a buoy behind Kaela with 2 buoys at 22 off at her last collegiate water ski tournament! I hope she left the lake with smiles this weekend as she steps out of her water skis and into the real world! We will miss you, Hannah!!

Don’t Blink You’ll Miss Trick

Men’s trick was off to a solid start early in the day with two boats getting it done on the water. Ben Leeds from San Diego State claimed victory, breaking Ty Vaio’s winning streak, with a score of 1040. Little Ben best Arizona State’s Jackson Baines by only TEN points as Jackson took second with a score of 1030. Following a spill after skiing through a bunch of churn, Cal Poly’s Ty Vaio earned a reride and took advantage of it by knocking out a 930 point pass and claiming third place in the event. Ty was followed by ASU’s Ryan Fitzpatrick in fourth with 890 points. Rounding out the top five was Cole Dohmann of San Diego State (the twin with the short hair for those of you wondering) with a score of 810 points, 400 points ahead of the 6th place score and almost 500 points ahead of his twin brother Alec!

To no surprise, the women out tricked the boys. San Diego State held a clinic with a podium sweep! For her second win of the weekend, freshman Natalie Gaharan took home the gold with an awesome to pass for a score of 1580! Teammate Kari Mccollum took home her second silver of the weekend just shy of Natalie’s score with 1410 points. Senior, and now SDSU water ski alum, Hannah Gaharan took home her final trick award with 860 points to secure third place! Another one of the West Coast’s seniors Madeline Brooks from the hosting team, UCLA, took 4th place with 200 point personal best, a pass of 660 points, to redeem herself after missing her opening pass in slalom for the first time in two years. Way to go Maddy! Taking home her second 5th place of the weekend, Kyla Jo Miller from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo tricks a score of 460 points to put Cal Poly women on the trick podium!

Slippery Slalom!!!!

With so much daylight left and time remaining in the day, the competition continued with some classic slippery slalom, and the best crash award Saturday evening inviting everyone and anyone to participate at a buy in of $5 per skier. Everyone in the event went 19mph and most started at 28′ off the line or shorter. At the end of each pass line was cut until the skier missed a buoy or more likely, slipped out!

The pool was split between men and women, but Western Washington University alumna Jaye Morris went out early and proved yet again that she could hang with the the boys. Her early lead of 1.5 buoys at 39.5′ off held for a long time. At the end of the event, there were only three men who bested her score; ASU alumnus Kevin Malak, ULM alumnus Taylor Horton, and Cal Poly Skier Ty Vaio. Jay finished at the top of the leaderboard for the women, besting SDSU’s Kari McCollum, and UCLA’s Julia Schulte. Kari had a gnarly crash that would win her the “best crash award” later in the evening!

Slippery Slalom Leaders

Men:

1. Kevin Malak 4@39 off (scored in a run-off)
2. Taylor Horton 2.5@39 (scored in a run-off)
3. Ty Vaio 2@39

Women:

1. Jaye Morris 1.5@39
2. Kari McCollum 5@35
3. Julia Schulte .5 buoys

Jump Day! Let’s #SendIt

“Ah, might as well jump (Jump). Go ahead and jump. Might as well jump (jump). Go ahead and jump. Jump” That’s exactly how Sunday morning started, with some Van Halen and JUMP! Around 7:30 am people started escaping their hot tents for some women’s crash. With only 4 girls in the first two rounds, the day was already moving pretty quickly! For the second weekend in a row, Kari McCollum of San Diego State takes the win on a beautiful ¾ cut at the ramp with 100 ft. Trailing behind Kari is Cal Poly’s Kyla Jo Miller with 78 ft jump with the help of Jaye Morris’ coaching. Taking home third place is senior Madeline Brooks of UCLA with a 68 ft jump to secure her bronze, and she was only 4ft ahead of Natalie Gaharan! Emily (Goldfish) Christener from Cal Poly jumps her way into 5th place with a personal best of 50 ft! All that hard work with Terry Goodman in the summers is paying off!

As women’s crash came to an end, the boys were ready to go with first round off the dock around 11:00 am. Some may have said this ramp was “too good” with how slippery it seemed to be. That didn’t stop Ryan Fitzpatrick of ASU taking the lead by 11 feet with a jump of 124 feet. For those who were watching, it was very apparent his third and final jump was going to be significantly farther if he had not passed but hey, better safe than sorry? Taking second place with 113 feet, a veteran to the podium, Ty Vaio of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Little Ben Leeds takes third with a 101 foot leap to secure his podium finish over Jackson Baines of ASU at 98 feet. Shout out to Miles Lussi for ALMOST making it to the century club, and Collin Baker who skied his way into 6th place with a new PB of 71 feet!! We could all hear how excited he was from the shore!

This Skistock themed weekend was nothing short of fun and groovy. Huge thank you to UCLA for hosting such an amazing tournament! The overall team standings are listed below:

Combined Team Results

1. San Diego State University
2. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
3. University of California, Los Angeles
4. Arizona State University
5. California State University, Sacramento
6. Bakersfield College
7. Western Washington University

The full scorebook can be found on USA Water Ski & Wake Sports website.