Arizona State Wins at The ColiSKIum Out West

On the weekend of March 24-25, 2018 Arizona State University hosted the first tournament of the NCWSA Western Region’s 2018 spring season. The tournament was hosted in Newberry Springs, California and when most people think of Southern California weather the first thoughts are of sun and warmth. Well we were one of two this weekend, as 20-25mph winds kept temperatures in the high sixties feeling a little bit chillier than normal. With the tournament occurring at the beginning of spring break for a lot of schools, several teams decided to not show up!? We aren’t sure of a better way to kick off spring break, but others apparently don’t share our opinion. The teams that did show up to battle it out were: Arizona State University, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo,  California State University, Chico, San Diego State University, University of San Diego, and Western Washington University.

Starting Saturday Late to Avoid A Chill

We kicked off the day with slalom skiing at around 930am. It was a bit chilly (50’ish) before 9am, so not many skiers wanted to get out of their tents even when 930am rolled around and the sun was warming the air as best it could with the 20+mph winds. Alex York was first off the dock, as he rolled out of his tent and headed straight for the dock. Going without a wetsuit early in the morning was an interesting wake-up strategy, but it worked out as Alex ran multiple passes and ended up beating out several teammates that skied later in the day! As men’s slalom progressed, Adam Koehler tried to get several pictures to post to the NCWSA Instagram, but every time he set up for a picture near 5 ball the skier fell around or near 4 ball. After seeing four or five men fell, slalom pictures had to wait for the women’s event or skiers returning on their second or fourth slalom pass. Thankfully the winds came from a direction that kept the lake calm, for the most part, allowing around half the field to run their opener. In the men’s event, Ryan Fitzpatrick of Arizona State University won the event with 3.5 buoys at 28′ off followed by Ben Miller of Cal Poly and Tymothy Johnson of Arizona State to round out the top three. In the women’s event, Kari McCollum of San Diego State University took first followed by Mary Kienbaum of Western Washington and Meghan Tierney of Arizona State University.

Getting Tricky

After what seemed like an immeasurably long delay between slalom and tricks, we kicked off the event and were pulling skiers in what is undoubtedly everyone’s favorite event (if jump and slalom didn’t exist). The good news was that Arizona State had started serving lunch during the delay, and the temperatures started to rise. With jump scheduled for the next day, we cruised through tricks an on pace to finish our day by 3pm…. crazy early! Alec Vaio from Arizona State University won the men’s trick event with a score of 1,330 points and Kari McCollum took the women’s event crown with a score of 1,580 points!

Jump Day!

A great way to spend your Sunday morning is to watch people fling themselves off big red! For the first tournament of the spring, we had a surprising amount of lands and very few people going completely upside down. The women’s event was first and only one skier didn’t land a jump! Kari McCollum completed her event sweep by leaping 75 feet for the jump event title followed by Mary Kienbaum at 68 feet and Meghan Tierney with a jump of 44 feet. Moving on to the men, we saw only one person fail to land a jump. Alec Vaio edged teammate Ryan Fitzpatrick for the event title by a single foot, Alec jumping 125 feet to Ryan’s 124 feet! Rounding out the top three was Grant Cox of Western Washington University with a jump of 101 feet.

Final Team Results

1. Arizona State University
2. San Diego State University
3. Western Washington University
4. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
5. California State University, Chico
6. University of San Diego

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