Iowa State Wins the 2018 Great Plains Conference Championship

15 Teams competed for the top 8 spots this past weekend at the Great Plains Conference Championships. Everyone skied their hardest so they could extend their season one more weekend at Midwest Regionals. Buoys were slayed, jumps were booted, flips were stuck, and a Conference record was shattered. We even got to experience a good old-fashioned night ski off for bragging rights and the unofficial first place for Men’s Slalom. It was a fantastic weekend and an extremely close competition.

The tournament started off with Women’s Jump and Men’s Slalom. We saw girls fly all Saturday morning! Nikki Webber (MOS) jumped 88 feet, followed by Amber Aho (IWS) with 72 feet, and Gabbie Taschwer (MAD) with 59 feet. Men’s Slalom got spicy as we saw a tie for first place. The freshman from Iowa State, Ryan Schipper, and Hunter Duffy (LAX) tied with an impressive 2 buoys at 35 off. I can’t forget to shout-out Mikey Trebisovsky (IWS) for his 3^rd place finish and slalom PB of 2 and a half buoys at 28 off.

Next everyone got tricky as Women’s Trick and Men’s Trick started! This is where a conference record was broken (this is still pending, but it deserves the shout-out now)! Hannah Janzig from Minnesota University tricked 1880 points. She is one of the only women trick skiers I have ever seen successfully land a flip (2 flips actually) at the Great Plains Conference Championships. We only saw more flip action as the men hit the water. Jarad Meyer (MAD) flipped his way into first with 2,360 points, followed by Hunter Duffy with 1400, and James Verch (MAD) with 1010.

As trick wrapped up, the sun started to set on the beautiful Dream Lakes. As skiers began to put dry clothes on, Hunter Duffy and Ryan Schipper began to gear up for the unofficial tiebreaker for Men’s Slalom Champ bragging rights. The sun was completely gone and the dark was setting in fast. The skiers hopped in the water and got ready to go head to head. Both skiers started at 36 mph 22 off. Duffy was the first to hit the water and Schipper followed. They both ran every passuntil it came down to 35 off. They tied again at one buoy 35 off, but that wasn’t good enough for these two athletes. They both took one more stab at 35 off. At this point, I’m sure neither of them could see anything. Duffy went first and got half a buoy. Schipper new exactly what he had to do to win and skied away with two buoys to give him the unofficial bragging rights of Men’s Slalom Champ at the 2018 Great Plains Conference Championship.

Sunday morning started bright and early with Women’s Slalom and Men’s Jump. Hannah Janzig took first with 2 buoys at 32 off, followed by Erin Vespestad (IWS), and Nikki Webber in third. Over on the jump lake, the men weren’t playing it safe. This was the last event of the tournament, so we definitely saw some full sends. Ryan Schipper flew 115 feet to put him in first, Hunter Duffy took second with 110 feet, and Evan Marcus went 93 feet for a third place jump finish.

Individual overall scores went a little something like this…Hunter Duffy took first overall for men, followed by Ryan Schipper in second, and Evan Marcus (LAX) in third. Quite the goon squad up on the podium, if I do say so myself. For women’s overall, we had a tie for first between Hannah Janzig and Nikki Webber. And in third, we had the show skier-converted-3-eventer Gabbie Taschwer.

The scores between the top 3 teams were insanely close. Iowa State edged out UW La Crosse for the second weekend in a row. Although leading the whole weekend, the Ski-gles just fell short after Men’s jump and Women’s Slalom. UW Madison trailed closely behind UW La Crosse by less than 100 points. The rest of the top 8 teams that qualified for Midwest Regionals are as follows: Kansas 4^th, Nebraska 5^th, UW Stout 6^th, Kansas State 7^th, and Marquette University in 8^th. Congrats to all of the qualifying teams! For those teams that came up just a little short this year, you all skied terrifically, and you should keep your season going and join your fellow Great Plains skiers at Regionals this year! Great Plains could use all the support they can get!

As always, huge shout out to Iowa State and Dream Lakes for hosting another amazing tournament! I cannot wait to see Great Plains and Great Lakes to battle it out this coming weekend for the top 6 spots and a one way ticket to the Connelly Skis 2018 NCWSA Nationals!

For the full scorebook from the tournament, click here!

Photo credit: UW Stout, Iowa State, Natalie Marcus, and Noah Lazzara