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University of Illinois
University of Illinois has come a long way. 2 years ago they had 3 members and failed to compete in any tournament. Last year they grew to about 15 members and managed to attend Conference for the first time in 3 years. They managed to put a team together but didn’t have bibs to compete. They managed by sharing an old Tshirt. This year they have increased to about 30 active members and competed in 2 tournaments and had actual bibs! they also managed to successfully host the Regional tournament without the help of other teams. Overall, the Illini Waterski team has gone from a “dead” team to a relevant team in a matter of 3 years.
Claire Brinkmann- University of Illinois
The Midwest Ski community has really helped to keep this member in the sport and working hard. She joined our team this year having skied only a few times. She signed up to join us at the tournaments and was interested in trying all the events. She fearlessly tried the jump at the at Conference, she got very close to landing but is determined to put in the time at practice so she can be landing jumps next year. At her first tournament she got up on two trick skis for the first time and scored 20 points.
At tournaments she went for the slalom course on two skis in her first tournament. Then at conference she decided to try getting up on one ski and she had an amazing experience on the docks. Other teams were helping to encourage her and giving her pointers. I think if it were any other way, she wouldn’t be working as hard as she does at the sport. I can’t wait to see where she will be next season with all of her hard work and determination she puts into the sport
Luke Robert- University of Illinois
The University of Illinois had a lot of new members this past season and we had one freshman who stood out. Luke continued to amaze us in tournaments. He had never jumped before and at the first tournament he landed a jump of 38ft(this was without any practice jumps before) then at Conference he PBed again with 43ft on his second jump and for his 3rd he decided to cut into the ramp because he was bored with just riding over. Anyone that was at the Great Plains conference knows that the weather was horrible. Trick ended up getting cut short because it was dark and rainy, but not until the 4th round was over. In these horrible conditions Luke PBed with a trick score of 200, many of the tricks being ones he hadn’t done before. At conference he also was our best slalom score with 5.5 bouys 15off going 26mph which was 3.5 more bouys than his previous PB.