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Anna prior – OSU
On top of continuing to build the empire that OSU is, Anna’s tourney scores skyrocketed this season. Watching her grow as a skier was on my favorite parts about being at Bennett’s this summer. Her dedication, discipline, and positivity with the sport models everything a great skier is. She woke up early some mornings to get an extra set in, always stayed positive on the water, and was hungry for scores! All her hard work showed throughout her season as she placed 3rd in slalom, jump, and over all at regionals!
Spencer Hack – WMU
Spence joined the team with an energetic and open mind set! He was always willing to do anything to help the team out- on and off the water. He had only seen the course a few times pre-season and scored 69 buoys at the second tournament of the year!Owen Houskamp WMU
Owen joined the team during the pandemic season and didn’t miss a beat! He went to every AWSA tournament he could that fall and then followed through with a mens captain position on the team. He coached skiers along the way and blew his old scores out of the water! Owen picked up about 300 points on a trick ski, slalomed into 28 off, and started cutting into the ramp at conferences! WMU is lucky to have Owen and wishful to see where he brings the team in coming seasons. 🙂Anna Geyer- MSU
To one of the most caring, down to earth, and cheerful people I know, nobody else deserves this award more! This smile could light up any ski lake and demonstrated so many leadership qualities this season. Including last minute equipment fixes on the dock, powering through an ankle injury at conference to keep the team morale high, and working hard to help send her team off to nationals!
Krista Bartholomey- WMU
Krista joined the team in the spring of 2019 and has supported Western’s growth since she joined. Coming to winter conference after only knowing the team for a short week and participating in all of our docks and lifts fundraisers. She’s eager to learn more about the course, the trick ski, and stomped her first land at conference with a 31 foot jump! After this season, Krista supported our team more by becoming a loyal member of our executive board. Krista does all of the little things on the team that actually make a huge difference- sending out Christmas cards, making beautiful canvases for us to bring to recruitment tabling and tournaments, schedules recruitment tabling opportunities, created a T-shirt fundraiser to help generate more money for the team, being our team photographer, putting body paint on all of our team members to send them off the dock and so much more!
Sam Mills -WMU
There is not a minute that goes by during ski season that I am not appreciating Sam’s hard work and dedication to the team. He was always eager to be on the water and itching to learn new tricks. Sam started trick skiing during the summer and pulled off a top 5 finish at Allentucky with a trick run of 380 points, and followed with another consistent pass at ripfest with a top 10 finish! Not only on the water, but off the water too! Sam learned the point system like the back of his hand to come up with different ways to maximize our points at tournaments and contributing new ideas to our team on the daily.
Josie Nason- WMU
WMU really is not going to be the same without Josie next year. As our insta says, she is our fly jumping, slalom crashing, finger pancake making, bundle of energy!David Huisman- WMU
HOLY MOLY this season would have been nearly impossible without David. Team Midwest, has there ever been a time you saw David walk around a ski lake without a smile on his face? Actually, you might have not even seen David walking around much at tournaments because he works SO HARD for us. From judging, to being safety, to figuring out how the points work out, to waking up hours earlier (after partying all night) to make sure the site is ready to go, and a bunch of other things I could say but there is not enough room in this box to type. Have you ever gotten in a boat or jumped in the lake and the boat crew barely says anything to you at all before you compete? Not from David’s boat! He’s going to ask you about your PB, how much you improved, how your feeling today, and encourage you from your head to the tips of your skiis, and be yelling from the boat when you make another PB. It does not matter what school you are from, he cares. I have never seen anybody so in love with this amazing sport. Thank you for rubbing off on me and sharing your ski bug! 🙂Kyle Provost- WMU
To say the least, WMU did not have a good ball rolln’ the first few weekends of our season. You can say that Kyle was the tape/glue for our team; keeping us together during the rough times, making sure everyone’s equipment was ready to go in his truck, getting people ready for their dock starts, and on top of being a great leader he was still skiing his booty off! Kyle had a 4th place podium this season as he got into 36 mph at our first tournament. WMU truly would not have been this successful without Kyle!Jose Luis Tejada- Purdue
I got to watch Jose from the boat during his trick pass at regionals and it was honestly the best 30 seconds of my life.Joey Neubaum- WMU
You know how it is kind of difficult to find people who want to join the waterski team, let alone send their body off a 5 ft ramp? After our first new member meeting, Joey walks up to me and simply says, “okay, where can I pay my dues?” Ever since his first meeting, Joey was always there. Despite our challenges this season, Joey skied as much as he could, came to all the tournaments, and always was there to cheer people on, and ended the season with a 43 foot PB in jump!Jared Walejewski -Western Michigan
Jared has done a lot for our team to help us reach our goals. Jared’s dedication for the team stood out to me this season; waking up extra early to get 6 A.M sets in before class, coming out as often as he can to work on form (not to mention, he’s an engineering major), and making an appearance at all the tournaments and constantly cheering on his teammates. Jared not only pushes himself, but his dedication and positivity are contagious to the team. With his hard work he improved by 15 buoys, Jared could only run 1 at 26 MPH and boosted his PB to 3 balls at 30 MPH. This season, Jared was nominated as Vice President and has been working hard off the water as well to benefit our team. Jared schedules all of our E-Board meetings, keeps track of our team’s progress, helps organize fundraisers, and helps with Docs and Lifts. I can’t wait to see where Jared takes our team and how much his hard work pays off in future seasons!
Olivia Neitzke -Western Michigan University
Olivia joined the team last fall shortly before tournaments started and it was easy to see her passion and how quickly she fell in love with waterskiing. Olivia was the first girl to respond to me after sending out a mass text message to 65 girls and continued to show her dedication throughout the season. Olivia was out on the water whenever she could be. She had never 3 event skied before this season and is already touching 3/4 ball and working hard to finish the course. Not to mention, Olivia also has a steady balance on a trick ski and is working on surface O’s already. In addition to slalom and trick, Olivia was always was eager to listen to constructive criticism about jump and by the last tournament, Olivia had landed her first jump! To never 3 event skiing to all of these major improvements in a short season is an excellent asset to our team and I can’t wait to see all the progress she will make these next coming seasons.
Kyle Provost -Western Michigan
Western Michigan took a couple big steps as a team this year, and I think part of it has to do with our men’s captain, Kyle. He made sure to be on the dock for each of our teammates to encourage them and was always running a bit faster than the rest of us to help them out of the water. Kyle would constantly enthuse the team, no matter of their performance. During practice, Kyle is always working on perfecting his form and setting a good example for the rest of the team. He coaches teammates with enthusiasm and nobody ever seems to be upset when Kyle is in the boat.