Hawkeye Skifest: Great Plains Back in Action

‘Twas the night of the first ski tourney and all through the Midwest,

All the skiers were stirring, not getting much rest;

Their tents were put up by the lake with little care,

In hopes that in the morning their shelters would still be there;

The skiers were nestled all snug in their make shift beds,

While visions of PBs danced in their heads;

The sun rose quickly above the beautiful Dream Lakes,

While captains screamed “Good morning skiers!” and gave all the tents a good shake!

Ok, ok I’ll stop the rhyming now and get to the good stuff…

Jarad Meyer flipping his way into first place for Men’s A Trick

The tournament kicked off Saturday morning with Men’s Slalom. UW La Crosse’s Hunter Duffy took first place with 0.5 buoys at 35 off followed by Ryan Schipper (IWS), and Dan Steiner (MAD). The women were next to slay some buoys and buoy oh buoy did we see some real slaloming this year! The Slalom Queen, Erin Vespestad, from Iowa State University took first, followed by Amanda Rippel (KST), and Nikki Webber (MOS) trailing in third. In total, the LAX Ski-gles, both men and women, took slalom by storm and took first.

Next, the men got tricky and the women got a little ~sendy~ as Men’s Trick and Women’s Jump took place. The Madison Men took first with their leading skier and the King of Pop, Jarad Meyer, taking first with a score of 1370, followed by Hunter Duffy with 1090, and Ryan Schipper with 960. The women were the first skiers of the weekend to hit Big Red. Even with one of their top jumpers abroad this semester (Hi Tiera! We miss you!), the Iowa State Women’s Jump team soared into first. Nikki Webber, the one woman team, from Missouri State University, showed everyone that girls can really fly and skied away with an 89-foot boot. Amber Aho (IWS) came in second with a 72-foot jump and Hope LaMonica (IOW) came in third with a PB of 63 feet.

As the sun started to set, we ended Saturday with Women’s Trick. Amanda Rippel from Kansas State came in first with a huge score of 1090, followed by Nikki Webber (MOS) with 810, and Jenna Meyer (LAX) with 600.

Chris Kownick contributing a huge boot for the ISU Men’s Jump Team

Sunday morning came around and the tournament wrapped up with Men’s Jump. Hunter Duffy (LAX) PBd and took first with a 123 foot jump, followed by Ryan Schipper (IWS) with 113, and Evan Marcus (LAX) with 94. Just like the women of Iowa State, the men also dominated jump and took home first!

As overall scores go, Hunter Duffy took first, Ryan Schipper took a close second, and Evan Marcus placed third. For women, Nikki Webber took first, Amanda Rippel placed second, and Erin Vespestad placed third.

For the third year in a row, UW La Crosse won Hawkeye Skifest. Iowa State University trailed closely behind in second place, UW Madison came in third, Marquette University came in fourth, and University of Nebraska placed fifth. We saw some amazing skiing for the first great plains tournament of the year and massive improvement from every single team! It was also awesome to see all of the new faces this year. Welcome to collegiate ski tourneys, newbies!

Lastly, huge shout out to Iowa State University and Dream Lakes for running such a great tournament and hosting after our original site experienced flooding! We can’t wait to be back for conference and watch the competition intensify!

For the full scorebook from the tournament, click here!

Photo credit for all photos: Noah Lazzara, University of Wisconsin – Madison