West Coast Best Coast Regionals

Kyla Jo Miller News, Regionals, Western Region

The 2021 Western Regionals this last weekend October 2-3rd was a special event being that it was the first in-person event the coast has hosted since Nationals in 2019 right here at Bell Acqua in Rio Linda, California. Eight schools came to battle for a spot at the 2021 National Championships. Taking the lead by over 2,000 points were our generous hosts, the Arizona State Sun Devils followed by San Diego State University just taking silver by 250 points over Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. The region saw quite a drop in team points but UC Davis snagged 4th place to secure a spot at Nationals just ahead of UCLA who secured the region’s last spot on the road to Bennett’s! Chico State barely missed the top 5 trailing 25 points behind UCLA. Brand new team, UC Berkeley made quite the debut taking 7th place ahead of Western Washington University. Over 40 tents lines the lake as the 115 registered skiers showed up Friday evening. 

After a brutal awakening Saturday to ‘Barbie Girl’ on repeat, skiers crawled from their tents, and the day was kicked off bright and early with men’s slalom per usual. After many openers missed, Arizona State swept  1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th allowing Berkely’s Alex Topp to take 2nd place with 2 @ 38 Off. Taking the lead was one of the four Jaramillo siblings to rock the West coast, Federico with an impressive 5 @ 38 Off. In third was Carton Eaton followed by teammates Fletcher Holm, Gage Jarvis, and Peter Vaio. The podium for women’s slalom was dominated by the Jaramillo sisters taking 1, 2, and 3 with a clean sweep followed by ASU’s Sami Streitfeld, Jana Grubbs, and Anneli Holms. Seems like siblings are a common theme among the Sun Devils! 

As if the Jaramillo siblings didn’t have a strong enough start to their collegiate careers, ASU freshman Federico, also referred to as “Fede”, dominated boys’ tricks, scoring 4370 points on his single pass with 6 different flips. No strangers to the podium, teammates Carter Eaton and freshman Fletcher Holm take 2nd and 3rd just ahead of ASU’s Peter Vaio and Brett Streitfeld. Some might think Arizona State was the only team to show up to regionals but Colin Knight of SDSU put points on the board with a solid trick score to take 6th place. The oldest of the tribe, Paula Jaramillo, takes the win to get UCLA some points towards nationals ahead of sisters Luisa and Isabela of ASU. Saturday was a long day of skiing and an even longer night of celebrating the return of the best sport ever. 

Sunday’s on the West coast are known to begin with Women’s Crash first thing in the morning and man was that taken way too seriously this weekend. Not a single girl landed a jump until deep into the third round. With only ten girls landing a jump successfully, the event took longer than most other days but UCLA’s Paula Jaramillo stunned the region with her 119-foot jump for the win over ASU’s senior Jana Grubbs (91 feet). Snagging third in a tie was Cal Poly’s KJ Miller and ASU’s Luisa Jaramillo with 90 feet just ahead of Isabela Jaramillo (89 feet). Freshman Sami Streitfeld gave the crowd a show with her first jump attempt ending upside down but came back strong to take 6th place with a solid 87 feet. 

We had an impressive start to the men’s jump event with freshman Fletcher Holm taking the win early on with a massive 141-foot jump. Fletcher may be smaller than most but puts them to shame on the water. Senior, Gage Jarvis came off injury to earn himself a PB of 118 feet to take second place ahead of SDSU’s Colin Knight at 104 ft. and officially joining the century club. If I’m not mistaken, the West Coast owes Mr. Knight a little toss into the lake right? Big Red treated everyone right this weekend with no major injuries and a decent show! 

The weather was great and the spirit was strong on the shores of Bell Acqua Lake 1 this weekend. Great efforts from every team who showed up and great job ASU for hosting such a large event. Here is how the final team placements shook out, with ASU sweeping the field. 

Results

  1. Arizona State University – D1
  2. San Diego State 
  3. Cal Poly, SLO 
  4. UC Davis
  5. UCLA 
  6. Cal State Chico
  7. Cal Berkeley 
  8. Western Washington 

Top 5 teams from the West Coast will continue on to the Syndicate 2021 National Collegiate Waterski Championships in Zachary, LA on October 21-23rd. Arizona State University will be automatically seeded D1 as regional champions. The remaining teams will be seeded in the Wildcard draw. Watch all the action on the NCWSA Live webcast from the event.

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