First off, THANK YOU to all of those who came out and supported the Jr. US Open in West Chester this weekend!  Those of you who didn't make it, you missed an absolutely great event.  Greg Lanich, Larry Downes, and all the skiers from Lake Lottawatta did a great job organizing and running the event.  The head of the park board said they enjoyed having the skiers on site and he hopes that we can do another event there in the future.

The skiing was absolutely spectacular and there are a few highlights that I have to share with everyone...  Saturday was qualifying and there are two performances that really stood out from the rest.  The first was in the Junior Men's Slalom when Adam Sedlmajer of the Czech Republic ran 2 buoys @ 39 off 36 mph.  The second great performance of the qualifying round was Kevin Melnuk jumping 206 feet which tied the Junior US Open record.  Both of these performances set up what would be a very exciting final on Sunday!

In the Junior Men's Slalom on Sunday, Midwest skier Nate Smith of Indiana came out as the #2 seed and ran 38 off 36 mph and finished with a score of 1 buoy @ 39 off.  That left the #1 seed Adam Sedlmajer as the only man left to knock off Smith and he was obviously very capable since he had run 2 @ 39 off in qualifying.  Sedlmajer got off to a beautiful start at 38 off and was running the pass easily when he overturned 5 ball and went down, leaving Nate Smith to be crowned the Junior US Open slalom champion.

The Junior Men's Jump was the final event of the weekend and we were all excited to see Kevin Melnuk jump again.  Little did we know however that the #2 seed Adam Sedlmajer had no intentions of going down without a fight.  Adam's PB in jump was 199 feet, so we knew he was capable, but he had posted 182 feet in qualifying which was a long ways from Kevin's 206 ft leap.  Adam came out on jump number one with an impressive 191 ft jump.  He followed that up with a 199 ft. jump tying his PB and the Czech Republic National Record.  Everybody was fired up now!  Adam had one jump left, the question was, would we be the first to witness him breaking the 200 ft barrier?  Do to a small break in the action to adjust a camera, we were not confident that Adam could pull it off after cooling down for a good 10 minutes.  Never the less, off the dock came Adam for his 3rd and final jump.  He again had a great looking pull into the ramp, launched himself off the top and had a spectacular flight through the air.  We knew it was going to be close.  Everyone waited to hear what score the judges would come back with and then it came....208 feet!...The crowd erupted with applause!  Then we realized that we had one more jumper to go, Kevin Melnuk who had just jump 206 feet the day before.  Could he do it again?  Could he increase it by 2 feet?  He had 3 jumps to do.  The first jump was about 191 feet (a nice opening jump), the second jump was 197 feet.  He was getting better, but he was going to need everything he had to get beyond 108 feet.  Kevin came barreling into the ramp for his 3rd and final jump and the crowd went crazy as he floated through the air and land just beyond the 200 ft buoy.  We knew it was going to be close!  Everyone waited excitedly and then the score came through...207 feet!...Kevin was just 1 foot short and Adam Sedlmajer would be crowned the 2008 Jr US Open jump champion.  It was an amazing finish to the tournament and one of the most exciting waterski finishes I've seen.

Zach Warden also put on an amazing jump show setting a new National Record in his age division with a jump of 194 feet.

There were so many other great performances from both the guys and girls.  It was just an exciting and entertaining event.

Mason Mechler of Cincinnati, OH tricked well with a score of 3,300 points and Keri McClure of Van Wert, OH also looked great placing 3rd Overall in the Junior Women's division.

For more details, scores, and the webcast check out www.jrusopen08.com.

If you have pictures from the event, please email them to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and we'll post them on the website!