The Rock Aqua Jays won the team title at the 2023 Indmar Marine Engines Division 1 Show Ski National Championships, presented by Visit Central Florida.
Rock Aqua Jays Win Indmar Marine Engines D1 Show Ski Nationals
by USA Water Ski & Wake Sports
The Rock Aqua Jays Water Ski Show Team (Janesville, Wis.) won the national team title at the 48th Indmar Marine Engines Division 1 Show Ski National Championships, presented by Visit Central Florida, Aug. 11-13, at Hidden Lake in Warsaw, Ind.
The Rock Aqua Jays earned high-scoring awards for ballet, doubles, swivel, towboat driving, showmanship, and high individual club act in tallying a grand total 1,988.94 points in winning their 22nd national title in the history of the event and first since 2021. The Mad-City Ski Team (Madison, Wis.) placed second with 1,858.2 points and Aquanut Water Shows, Inc., the defending champions, finished third with 1,757.54 points.
The tournament featured 14 teams and more than 1,500 athletes. In competitive show skiing, each club has one hour to present a theatrical performance on water skis. Judges score acts by awarding points based on originality, presentation and execution. Elaborate costumes and staging intermix with music and fast action on the water as an announcer leads the audience through the show.
Grace Petzold (Mequon, Wis.) of the Rock Aqua Jays and Derek Buchman (Cameron, Wis.) of the Mad-City Ski Team won the Willa Cook and Skip Gilkerson awards, respectively. The awards are given to the tournament’s top female performer and top male performer, as voted on by the tournament officials.
In addition to the team competition, athletes competed individually in swivel, swivel pairs, strap doubles, freestyle jumping and team jumping. Brea Imse (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) won the swivel title, scoring 17.98 points. Brea Imse (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) and Paige Peshina (Malvern, Ohio) won Swivel Pairs, scoring 15.92 points. Sarah Yost (Scandia, Minn.) and Ryan Hoops (St. Paul, Minn.) won doubles, scoring 18.14 points. Kimberly Stoner (Hartland, Wis.) and Cory Krivitz (Hartland, Wis.), who had won the doubles title for the last 10 consecutive years, placed second with 16.68 points. Pete Hegarty (Winter Haven, Fla.) won freestyle jumping, scoring 1,115.00 points, and the Catfish Bay Water Ski Team (Sioux Falls, S.D.) won team jumping, scoring 84.80 points.