Season Cut Short
By: Adam Koehler		September 26, 2008
The Marquette Waterski Team saw its season cut short as it placed eleventh at the Great Plains Conference tournament at Waters Edge in Wilmington, Illinois. This was the first time the team did not qualify for the Midwest Regional tournament since its first year of existence. A shortened season is an unfortunate result for the graduating members who are in their last academic year or last year of skiing eligibility, but many of the individual results from new and upcoming members gave the team hope for towards next year. In slalom, personal bests were set by freshmen Dusty Bodine and Laurie Simonds. Dusty ran a pass for the first time in a collegiate tournament and followed up by running another eventually ending with a personal best of 3.5 buoys at a speed of 32 mph and 15 feet off the line. After not slaloming in two weeks and going without much instruction the first week Laurie Simonds set a personal best of one buoy. In trick, some consistency issues drained through as some members fell early in their passes. Senior Marcy Holtz put up a solid run for the second straight week earning a fifth place finish. Laura Sampson earned a personal best of 280. Dusty Bodine stayed consistent putting up 480 points after his PB of 490 last at the previous tournament last weekend. In jump, several members that are returning next year showed promise. Juniors Kelly Kotarek and Laura Sampson were the closest they have ever been to landing in a collegiate tournament. Each hopes to take the off season in stride and being landing jumps next spring and fall. Freshman Allyson Kaufmann landed her first jump ever and Laurie Simonds went out with a sore neck and landed a jump for the team to put points on the board. On the men's side Junior Alex Curran set a personal best in jump of 53 feet on a donkey kicked ride over. Sophomore Jose Gonzalez was very close to landing his first jump ever and will hopefully be landing in the spring. Patric Tuuk, TJ Langdon, and Dusty Bodine all also landed jumps and will be returning to the team next year. Eleventh place was unsettling for many members of the team, yet as we all look forward the team should be in a better place next year than this year. With all the newer members getting their first year out of the way and starting their first offseason with goals for 3-event skiing, the team looks toward next year and hopes that an up and coming and young team can turn into a more experienced, consistent, and veteran team.