Most Improved Team or Skier

[Andy]

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!

[mariodannunzio]

I would like to nominate Bryce Fongers from Grand Valley for the most improved skier award. Bryce is a very diligent individual when it comes to benefiting himself as well as the team as a whole when in competition. He would always be looking for advice from different people to better his skills (shout out Drew BudLight) and ever since Bennetts 2024 he is now an all around skier. Even though he chose to preserve his knees this season and didn’t compete jump, Bryce worked endless hours on trick during the majority of the off season, as well as in-season practices, and it SHOWED. His highest PB this season was a score of 630 points after not being able to complete a SIDE SLIDE in May of 2024. This alone shows how much time he dedicated to his improvement, which is why he is one of the most suited candidates for this award.

[AshtonKrill]

I would like to nominate the Michigan State University Waterski Team for the most improved team award. As a team we have had essentially a full rebuild in less than a year. Last season we were 6th place at conferences and finished in 12th at regionals failing to qualify for nationals. In addition we were only able to put together a full women’s A team for every event for regionals that year. We had only 3 A team women skiers at Allentucky.

This year we had a full shift in team culture. We had a full women’s A-team and multiple women’s B-team skiers at every tournament. Our new and the few returning women skiers, helped make our scores competitive at every tournament and deserve so much praise for stepping up and preforming at Regionals with every women at least running a full mini course!

We had one of the most successful Spartan Ripfest’s with 427 pulls! This was thanks to our super dedicated old team members and new team members who jumped right into this wonderful community and helped bring MSU Waterski back to its rightful place as a powerhouse in the Midwest!

In addition to this our men’s team jumped from 10th in the region to flighting with Madison for 1st all season. In the nation we ended the season ranked 9th! Our men’s slalom team finished the season ranked 8th in the nation, only behind ULL, ULM, Alabama, Florida Southern, ASU, Clemson and Rollins (All warm weather schools, with all year ski access). In addition we saw a huge jump in our Men’s trick team, with only one skier scoring over 500 points last year (Aidan Hughes, who should also be the region MVP). This year we had all of our A-team Men’s skiers trick over 500 points at some point in the season! It should also be noted that MSU does not have jump to practice on and all of our men’s A team skiers jump over 55 feet (last year not counting Aidan, we had no one land over 50ft if I remember correctly)

Thanks to our stellar mens and women teams (and thanks to huge jumps from our men on the last day) we were able to secure 6th place at Regionals where we qualified for Nationals in a year where none of the projections had us making it! While at Nationals we had a blast securing 6th place, while getting our team prepared for the upcoming season where we are set to take a stab at the D2 national championship or possibly a bid at D1 nationals!

I cannot say enough about the great men and women who make up our team and the excellent support we had from returning skiers welcoming in key new members to the team. I think that the turn around on paper looks nice, but the real turn around and improvement took place with the number of new members and the family that we have built here within the MSU Waterski Team.

Thank you for your consideration and Go Green!

[Author]

Posts