Greg Lanich took down the entire field of 36 skiers to be crowned the 2009 Lottawatta Top Cat under the lights late on Saturday night.  The 2nd stop on the Buckeye Buoy Tour started off Saturday morning with

two qualifying rounds of slalom where all 36 skiers faced off in an attempt to qualify for the top 15 which would ski in the finals later that night under the lights.  The 36 skiers were seeded and divided into 3 groups of 12.  5 skiers from each group would advance to the finals.  Personal bests were dropping like flies as skiers battled each other trying to put up the best scores against their individual averages.

Some of the noteable performances in the first two rounds included 18 year old Nate Smith of Indiana running 38 off 36 mph both rounds and posting scores of 2 @ 39.5 off and 3 @ 39.5 off, Andrew French of Hamilton, OH running into shortline slalom for the first time in a tournament and posting a score of 1.5 @ 22 off, Connor Nelson of Cincinnati, OH and James Russo of Cincinnati both running their first full pass ever in a tournament and both posting scores of 3 buoys @ 26 mph, and Kinsey Barhorst of Dayton, OH who set a new personal best in a tournament by 2 full passes running 2.5 buoys @ 30 mph.

After two rounds had passed, the following 15 skiers were headed to the finals under the lights:

A pig roast at the VFW made for a great dinner followed by a round of laid back trick skiing prior to the finals.  At about 9:30 the finalists headed for the starting dock and the lights of Lake Lottawatta were fired up!  Just as she had done in the Lottawatta Survivor, Sarah Rosenblum went first off the dock and set the bar at 100% by running her average buoy count.  The next two skiers off the dock went down early on their opening pass, but James Russo wouldn't be taken down so easily running another full pass at 24 mph (the second full pass for James of the day and his tournament skiing career).  Unfortunately for James, he went down around 2 ball on his second pass, just 1.5 buoys shy of his average and posting a handicapped score of 96.15%.  3 out of the next 5 skiers struggled with the darkness, but not Lake Lottawatta owner Greg Lanich who had done some of his best skiing in recent history early that day.  Greg managed to get around 4 ball for a score of 3.5 @ 22 off, just 1/2 buoy over his average but good enough to edge him into first over Rosenblum with a score of 100.67%.  Greg Houser of Lake Lottawatta set himself up for a shot to steal the top spot from Lanich.  He would need to run 2 buoys @ 28 off to over take the top position but came up just short when he lost the handle going through the end gates at 22 off and therefore not getting to take a stab at 28 off.  The top 5 skiers from Group 1 were all that remained to ski.  The first four didn't put up much of a fight but top seeded skier Nate Smith wasn't going to give up as easily.  He had already run 38 off twice that day and would need to do it again if he wanted a stab at beating Lanich.  Nate worked his way through a few passes in the dark and once again took down 38 off for the third time that day and became the first skier to run 38 off under the lights in a Lottawatta tournament.  Nate's average, increased from the previous round, was set at 3 buoys @ 39.5 off, meaning he would need to run 4 @ 39.5 off to win.  Nate rounded 1 ball but skied just inside 2 ball leaving Greg Lanich standing as the 2009 Lake Lottawatta Top Cat.

The top 15 skiers placed in the following order:

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day for trick and jump.  Temps in the 80's and not a cloud in the sky.  Some solid trick scores had already been posted on Saturday night in the first round of trick and they continued into Sunday morning.  Some noteable scores from the first round included Samantha Ruehl tricking 4,730 points, 113.5% of her average, Sarah Rosenblum tricking 1,770 points, 111% of her average, and Greg Kuenning tricking 880 points, 125% of his average.  These three skiers led the field going into round two, but for trick and jump, the two rounds are averaged together, so it's important to be consistent in both rounds.  It was skiers in the second round that really stepped up to the plate.  Zach Schneider threw down a trick run of 1,940 points, 124% over his average, giving himself a combined average of 114% and the win in trick.  Emma Miner took 2nd place in trick by scoring 1,390 points 112% of her average, and Brad Ruff took 3rd Place tricking 740 points 111% of his average.

As always, the jump event didn't disappoint.  There's nothing more exciting at a waterski tournament then seeing people fly 100+ feet over the ramp!  After Round 1, Greg Lanich seemed to be a shoe in for his second win of the weekend after jumping 78 feet for a score of 132%.  Unfortunately Greg wasn't able to put a score in the books during Round 2 and quickly slipped out of the race for the top spot.  James Russo on the other hand wouldn't go out so easily.  After posting a score of 63 feet, 129% of his average, James went on in the second round to jump 59 feet and capture the win in jump with a combined average of 111%.  Nick Perrino, after winning trick at the Lottawatta Survivor, proved he's a jumper also by first landing a 68' jump, 102% of his average and then an 80' jump in round 2 for a combined average of 110% and a second place finish.  Andrew Baker rounded out the top 3 with jumps of 41 and 47 feet.  Andrew French posted the furthest jump of the day with a leap of 128 feet and a 4th place finish!  Also, congratulations to Mike Rouse of West Chester, OH for re-joining the century club after a number of years with two jumps of 100 feet!

This 2nd stop on the Buckeye Buoy Tour was another great event!  Thank you to all the officials and the Lake Lottawatta skiers who made the event possible.

Official AWSA Scorebook 7.48 Kb