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To get better at anything, it takes consistent practice. Trial and error. Failing and overcoming those failures. In water skiing, this is especially true – the number of times you have to fall on each new trick is often a serious barrier to an individual’s progress.
Who do you think was the most improved skier over the past season? It could be a team or an individual!
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln would like to nominate Ethan Mortimer for the Most Improved Skier award. Morty went from not consistently scoring in April of this year to running into 34 mph 15 off. He has also made extraordinary advancements in the jump event. He has made the most drastic impact on the teams’ overall points.
I nominate Jack Haynes from Purdue University and Purdue Waterski- at the end of last year he could not run a slalom course, jumped 44 feet, and tricked 200. Now he runs 34 22 off, has tricked 660 pts, and has jumped 91 feet. He went from a borderline B-team skier to one of our most valuable 3 eventers.
SIU deserves the most improved team this year!! Last year we did not even qualify for regionals and this year we took 6th at conference and qualified with room to spare. We have also gained access back to our ski lake for the first time in over 10 years and we’re in the process of making it tournament ready. Some other things worth mentioning: we have doubled in size, created an alumni group and reached out to lost alumni, gained sponsors, and have improved relations with the university. SIU is coming back to the top. GO DAWGS!
For most improved skier I believe Alex Graves from SIU takes the cake. In one year he went from only being able to side slide to tricking 960 points at conference, not being able to ski a course to running into 34mph 15off, and improving his jump from 40ft to 66ft. We used to argue if he deserved A team or not, well now he is the teams best overall skier tournament after tournament.
Alex has also improved off the lake more than anyone I know. He helps me run the team so much, without him we wouldn’t have accomplished most of the things we’ve done this season. He has read our schools hand book cover to cover to try and find loop holes and low hanging fruit. He’s revived our alumni group and gained sponsors. He watches every pro tournament and could tell you the first and last name of all the skiers and what gear they use. But most importantly he has become a coach and supplies his personal boat for the team. And the best part about all of this and I don’t have to tell him to do any of it. He as grown a true love for the sport and the people involved. The real MVPI would like to nominate SIU for the most improved team this year. We finally got the infrastructure we needed to properly practice and we could see the direct result in our qualification for Regionals !
SIU is getting my nomination. Now that we have our access to our ski lake again, we’ve been practicing every chance we get, and we are making huge improvements. We have even gone out when the water is numbingly cold in December and January, but hey, that’s what wetsuits are for! I cannot wait to see how much better our team does next season. GO SALUSKIS!
I nominate SIU. The team has improved so much this year, there are a lot of new members and we even have a full women’s team. Finally this year we can use the ramp for our practices and it will be reflected in our results. Go salukis!!
I believe SIU has improved the most over the past few years. I graduated this past year and when I started we had only me and 2-3 other people going to tournaments. Now we have a full men and women’s team and have been been scoring higher and higher with each tournament with only more improvements to come.
Kendall Mottice (Akron)
Kendall came to our team as an already solid trick skier, but took a big leap this fall. She learned how to slalom and managed run her opener every tournament with a PB into 28mph-15, Kendall continued to excel in trick scoring 500 or more points twice, and landed jumps more consistently than ever before! Kendall has become one of Akron’s top skiers, and we are excited to see how she improves this summer!
I nominate Alex Graves from SIU, as well as the team of SIU. Alex Graves joined us GV skiers at Bennetts last spring break. Within the week, his improvements were insane. He didn’t rest for a second and even snuck in extra sets each day. Since last March, I have seen his improvements over videos as well as at regionals. The amount of dedication this kid has and how much he has contributed to the sport is well deserving of this nomination. The team of SIU has been growing and improving overall, also deserving of recognition.
For the most improved team I would like to nominate SIU. SIU has grown their team this past year and was able to compete with a full men’s and women’s team. SIU now has access to a ski lake with a ramp which will allow us to practice outside of tournaments.
SIU deserves the most improved team! We had a couple of first-time skiers this year and still qualified for regionals! Our team is working year-round to improve, even if it means skiing in December and January! This was my first year on the team but I noticed a drastic improvement from the beginning of the season to the end. Our team works hard to recruit new members and make waterskiing accessible to everyone no matter their experience, and our team keeps on getting bigger because of it. I’m so excited to see how much this team continues to improve in the following seasons!!!!
I believe SIU deserves the most improved award. Fall of 2021 season started with eight skiers (only one of which was a girl), 6 of these skiers had never even seen a slalom course, and nobody had ever landed a jump. We were the team who skied for fun, but not this past season. Fall of 2022 we took 11 skiers to regionals (which we actually qualified for) with full mens and womens teams. Some of our skiers ran multiple full passes on slalom this season, we had killer trick runs, and we have I believe 6 people landing jumps. I think SIU has come out of the dog house and we are here to play!
Keelie Plessner deserves most improved skier. Last season Keelie was only on A team for jump averaging around 40 ft. In the summer, she worked extremely hard improving in all three events. Keelie improved her scores from never running a slalom pass and rarely tricking over 100 points to tricking over 800, slaloming into 32 mph, and jumping over 50 ft. She quickly became a very important member of University of Wisconsin-Madisons Woman’s team while earning high placements overall at multiple tournaments.
I would like to nominate SIU Waterski for most improved team this year. Being involved in the collegiate waterski world for many years through family, SIU was never a name I heard much about, but in this past year that has drastically changed. Their team has doubled in size and with that more than doubled in their skills and abilities. I also know that they are putting in a lot of work to get their site back up and running and ready to host tournaments in the near future. It’s been so awesome watching them do so well in tournaments this year and take some names! Congrats SIU keep it up!
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