Ohio State University Wins 2016 Midwest Regionals

We’ve reached that time of the year here in the Midwest; many skiers are packing away their tents, placing their skis nicely in their bags for the winter, and looking back at pictures from the season with the feeling that nothing is right in the world. However, for six teams here in the Midwest Region,that feeling won’t come for another two weeks as they head to Nationals, and for three other teams that are competing in the Wild Card tournament that feeling has been pushed off for at least 24 hours (watch tonight 10/3 at Monday Night Football halftime, check out YouTube, but if that isn’t live then check www.ncwsa.com and social media for links).

P.I.T.S. Lake in Decatur, Illinois was the place to be this past weekend as 16 teams from across the Midwest skied their hearts out for a trip to El Centro, California. The weekend started out with Women’s slalom. It was an impressive competition with all schools getting points on the board. The ladies of the Ohio State University took the top spot in slalom, but the top three was decided by a meager 140 points. Men’s slalom followed, and was another close competition with Ohio State edging out Missouri State University by 70 points!

Saturday started off with Men’s trick, and after the Great Lakes conference showed up in force on Friday it was time for the Great Plains teams to step up and get noticed. Jarad Meyer (University of Wisconsin – Madison) and Dylan Brittain (University of Kansas) took 1st and 3rd respectively. Check out Jarad’s trick run on Brian Smith’s video below or on his Instagram.

Jarad Meyer’s College Trick Run at Midwest Regionals #lifeonthewater #waterski

A video posted by Brian Smith (@bsmith32946) on Oct 1, 2016 at 7:55am PDT

The Great Plains Conference was also well represented in Women’s Trick. University of Kansas took 2nd in the event, but Yuka Sasaki (Iowa State University) placed 2nd in the event. Two ladies, one from KU and another from Nebraska even tried out kneeboarding for the event! Women’s jump was next, and although rounds 1-4 were fun, everyone was waiting to see Riley Daulton of the Ohio State University hit the big red ramp. She jumped 125ft to take 1st place. However, spots 2-5 were solidly claimed by Kelly Reeve (KU), Yuka Saski, Tiera Salitros (Iowa State University), and Nikki Weber (Missouri State University).

The men were able to get Round 1 of jumping in for the day before the boats were off the water. After 1 round of men’s jump, skiers lined up for supper, and the Midwest captains meeting was underway. It was incredible to hear about the different accomplishments each team shared, and the excellent progress the sport of water skiing has made on the college campuses here in the Midwest. Keep up the great work!

The evening moved on and Sunday morning gave way to Rounds 2-5 of Men’s Jump, and there was no question the Great Plains was going to dominate the event. Grant Schipper (Iowa State University) barely beat out Riley Daulton’s Women’s event winning jump, squeezing in a jump of 126ft to take home 1st in the event. Spots 2-4 were taken by Laken Downes (KU), Dylan Brittain (KU), and Cameron Baxter (Iowa State University).

And with that, Midwest Regionals was over, along with the ski season for many athletes. The Great Plains and Great Lakes Conferences both skied an excellent competition! Although there were many excellent skiers, props must be given to Dylan Brittain from the University of Kansas. He took home the Men’s Overall Award for the 4th year in a row, something that has never been done by any male skier in the Midwest Region.

Once again, it was an amazing weekend for everyone at the tournament. Without a doubt everyone had fun and made new friends and memories. Although the season ends for some, don’t forget to support the teams who will be representing Team Midwest at Nationals in El Centro, California. Those teams are:

1. Ohio State University (14,520)
2. University of Kansas (11,855)
3. Miami of Ohio (11,840)
4. University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (10,845)
5. Michigan State University (10,685)
6. University of Cincinnati (10,470)

Three teams from the Midwest will be entered into the wildcard tournament happening tonight during halftime of Monday Night Football. These teams are:

1. Grand Valley State University (10,365)
2. Iowa State University (10,230)
3. University of Michigan (9,365)

You can check out the scorebook from the entire weekend here.

Best of luck to the teams headed to El Centro!

(Featured photo credit – Abbey Bays, you can download the original without logos here.)