| Midwest Regional Wrap Up |
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The 2008 Midwest Collegiate Regionals, hosted by the University of
Illinois, wrapped up in a spectacular fashion this past weekend down at
the PITS in Decatur, Illinois. The best 16 teams in the Midwest region
squared off for one of five berths in the NCWSA National Championships
held this year in Phoenix Arizona. Oh and let's not forget, this is the
first time that the Great Lakes teams have seen any of the Great
Plaines teams in real competition. Purdue vs. Madison. Michigan vs.
Iowa State. Cincinnati vs. Missouri State. Illinois vs. Wisconsin Stout
vs. Michigan State. The battles are close and they all mean something. The competition got off to a hot start Friday morning with women’s slalom under beautiful conditions. The competition was fierce but at the end of the day, Danielle Drewery of Grand Valley State (who are competing in their first ever Regionals) took first place with a score of 4 @ 28 off. Second place went to Maggie Tierney of Iowa State with 0.5 @ 28 off. Like a year ago, there was a tie in the women’s slalom event, but this time it was for third place. Both Heather Donen of Wisconsin Madison and Katie Redes of Grand Valley State both scored 3.5 @ 22 off. Rounding out the top 5 for the women was Ariel Oppenheim from Michigan State, just missing a full pass with 5 @ 15 off. Not to be outdone on the first day of comptetion, the men took to the water to swerve it up, and swerve it up they did! The top 9 places were separated by one exactly one buoy each! That is a pretty hard feat to accomplish, but I would never rule something like that out in the MCWSA. The top men’s slalomer of the day was Sergio (Checho) Uribe with a score of 3 @ 35off. Runner up to Checho was Matt Knafla of Iowa State with 2 @ 35 off. Following the separation of each by one buoy, with 1 @ 35 off was freshman Paul Tierney of Missouri State. Another freshman took the fourth spot with a full pass at 32 off; Tyler Lorenz from Wisconsin Madison. Finishing up the top 5 in men’s slalom was Illinois’ Mark Cassidy with a score of 5 @ 32 off. That was it for the competition on Friday, but it was some competition! The top 4 women’s team scores were separated by only 400 points, and the top 5 men’s team scores were only separated by 450 points! It was shaping up to be the most competitive Regionals in history. We got underway Saturday with another absolutely beautiful morning and some men’s trickers. With the competition so close, everyone knew that this was going to be a big day and they had to do their best. On the men’s side, this meant that all five of the top skiers would trick over 2000 points in an attempt to claim the regional champion title and help their team on the nationals! Besting the 2000 point mark by over 1000 points was Checho Uribe from Purdue taking first place with an amazing score of 3140. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th spots were separated by exactly 100 points- ridiculously close. In second was Mark Cassidy from Illinois with a score of 2230 points, in third was Christopher Van Treese from Cincinnati with a score of 2160 points, and in fourth place was Tyler Lorenze from Wisconsin Madison with a score of 2130 points. Scott Schmitt from Southern Illinois finished fifth only 120 points behind with a score of 2010 points. For four of the top five scores to be separated by only 220 points means that these boys knew they had to give it their all. Rather than move into women’s tricks right away, they swapped some boats and got women’s jump underway next. This was a close competition too (what wasn’t this weekend!?) and to show just how close it was, consider: 5th place to 40th place was only separated by 30 feet. That’s less than one foot per jumper- so every foot really did count! The top 5 in the event really pulled away somewhat though and your top jumper bested 5th place by 35 feet, and the next best by eight. Your Regional Women’s Jump champion this year was Mel Cyra from Wisconsin Madison with a leap of 98 feet. Finishing second with a jump of 90 feet was Christie Madden from Illinois. In third was Maggie Tierney from Iowa State with I believe a PB of 76 feet. Traci Weiss from Purdue took the fourth spot jumping 65 feet, and Sara Nicely from Missouri State rounded out the top five with a jump of 63 feet. After a short break the women took to the water again, running tricks back to back with jump. The story on tricks was much the same as it was in jumping, where 5 points could make up or drop you about 3 spots at a time! Only the best of the best pulled away by any significant margin. In a reversal of the previous women’s event, this time Christie Madden bested Mel Cyra for the regional championship- Christie finished 1st with a score of 1660 points, and Mel finished second with a score of 1040. Taking 3rd place was Kacy Clifton from Cincinnati with a score of 820 points. Traci Weiss from Purdue finished in the fourth spot in tricks as well as jump with a score of 740, and finishing up in the 5th spot with a score of 580 was Stephanie Elhoffer from Missouri State. Now one would think that this was about as much action as one day could handle. But the tournament was run so smoothly and without a hitch that there was still time to get almost the full first round of men’s jump in before the sun went down! So that they did, and by the end of the day, all that was left was 4 rounds of men’s jump. Four rounds of men’s jump. That was all that stood between 5 teams and a guaranteed bid to this year’s nationals. To say that the men’s skiers were pumped would be an understatement. Sunday morning we woke up to conditions that seemed like they could go either way… It could turn out just as stunningly beautiful as the two days previous, or it could go the direction of last years Regionals, when “Out the Fronts” were as common as K cards at a baseball game and it seemed like God himself didn’t want us to jump. Luckily the wind held off, the sun came out and everything was absolutely perfect to finish up the 2008 Regionals. Close competition was the norm in this years tournament, and the final even was no exception. 3rd, 4th, and 5th places were separated by one foot each. Just like with the women, only the top two spots pulled away in significant fashion, and even then it was 8 feet for one, and 12 feet for another. The big talk was about jumping phenom Dana Grubb from Southern Illinois breaking the regional record held by Cale Burdick of 162 feet. Everyone was on their toes watching, waiting for it to happen, but he fell a few feet shy with a jump of 157. This was still good enough for him to claim the Regional jump title though. In second place was Checho Uribe from Purdue with a jump of 145 feet. As mentioned before third through fifth places were separated by one 2 feet- Paul Ogren of Iowa State, Tyler Lorenze of Wisconsin Madison, and Sean Jacobi finished 3rd, 4th, and 5th with jumps of 137, 136, and 135 feet respectively. With all the scores in and calculated, it was time to figure out the overall winners and which teams would claim those five golden tickets to the years NCWSA Nationals… Women’s overall was won this year by Mel Cyra from Wisconsin Madison. Second was Traci Weis from Purdue, third went to Christie Madden from Illinois, fourth was captured by Sara Nicely from Missouri State, and fifth went to Maggie Tierney from Iowa State. Men’s overall was won this year by Sergio Uribe from Purdue. In second was Tyler Lorenz from Wisconsin Madison and third was Mark Cassidy from Illinois. Scott Schmitt from Southern Illinois finished fourth and Matt Fillmore from Purdue rounded out the men’s overall top five. There was only one thing left to do: announce the top five teams and those going to the NCWSA nationals in Phoenix Arizona. Your to five ended up like this: Qualifying for Division I: 1. Purdue University 2. University of Wisconsin Madison 3. Iowa State University Qualifying for Division II: 4. University of Cincinnati 5. University of Michigan So there you have it, the results of the 2008 MCWSA Regional Championships. But it’s not completely over yet; This year under a new format, the top 3 teams that didn’t get one of the top five automatic bids to nationals will go into a simulated tournament along with those finishing 6th, 7th and 8th in the other regions. We’ll have more on that later, but you teams finishing 6th, 7th, and 8th this year are: 6. Missouri State University (just 5 points out of 5th place with a score of 10095) 7. University of Illinois 8. University of Wisconsin Stout So we could potentially see one of these teams in the big show with our other five! Well there you have it folks, the complete results from Regionals. It was the most competitive tournament that I’ve seen to date, and it will probably only get more competitive from here on out! Thank you to the University of Illinois and all the people at the PITS, along with all of our officials for putting on such a smooth and well run tournament! Good Luck to everyone in Arizona!! |
