18
THE Seahawk/August 3 1 ,2DDD
Water ski team looks forward to a promising year
CHEL.5EA GIVENH
Staff Writer
It is going to be another great season
for the UNC Wilmington water ski team.
In addition to the new 2000 Malibu
Mastercraft boat, the team is also excited
about the first ever wakeboarding team.
In the past, the team has only competed
in the ski events and now they are able to
compete in all events because of the ad
dition. American Water Ski Association
member and driver Dave Stebner coaches
the team.
Returning this semester is Marcy
Ebberts, Chelsea Givens, Brad Herndon,
Alyssa Martin, Rob Mendieta and Jill
Thompson. It has been called a “rebuild
Kathryn Schley/ The Seahawk
UNCW Water ski club team member Tommy Jones demonstrates
the proper method of maintaining altitude during a jump. The team
practices regularly at a private lake south of Wilmington.
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ing year” due to the loss of half of last
year’s team. The team has had a great turn
out and there is a lot of young talent ready
to impress at the upcoming tournaments.
About fifty students have come out to ski
and wakeboard, making the team stron
ger than ever. There are four tournaments
a semester and, so far, the Seahawks have
done well. In their most recent tourna
ment, they placed third out of seven teams.
Team member Marcy Ebberts did ex
tremely well and went home with first
place in the women’s competition over
all.
The team traveled to Harmony, North
Carolina to compete against schools such
as Clemson, Auburn, Alabama and UNC
Charlotte. Competition consists of slalom,
trick skiing, jump ramp, and
wakeboarding events. Based on a point
scale, determined by judges, the team with
the most points wins. Both the ski and
wakeboarding teams have been practic
ing hard to make UNCW’s name known
in the tournaments. In fact, not only do
they practice hard, they also drive a long
way to do it. The team drives twenty-five
miles to practice at a private lake just south
of Wilmington. However, according to
Brad Herndon, it is defmitely worth the
r
Katnryn Schley Tne Se./havv*
Advanced water skiing, such as
the slalom style, takes skill and
strength that come only with time.
drive.
“We practice hard but we also have a
lot of fun. We have a great team this year
and I always look forward to going to the
lake.”
With the diverse talent and the addi
tion of the wakeboard team, it looks like
a promising year in competition. If you
have any interest in the water ski or
wakeboarding teams, please contact the
Campus Recreation Department.
Runners fare well in Raleigh
Erica Harbatkin
Staff Writer
UNC Wilmington’s cross country squads
showed tremendous teamwork as they com
peted against tough competition at North
Carolina State. The WoUpack Invitational,
which included poweAouses such as Uni
versity of Virginia, Georgia Tech, Campbell
University and host school North Carolina
State, took place on Saturday in Raleigh. The
men’s and women’s teams took seventh out
of 11, and ninth out of 14, respectively.
Senior captain Amanda Statz led the
UNCW women’s team, placing 31'“ out of
113 competitors. Senior Mary GUI was the
second finisher for the Seahawks, taking 46*
place. Gill was followed closely by sopho
more Bayly Bulkeley (58"' place), and se
niors Kate Hayek (62"*') and Meredith
Sullivan (63“'), rounding out the top five.
“We stayed together,” said Hayek, a na
tive of Raleigh. “I could see a lot of the people
on my team in front of me and around me. I
think we did really weU as a pack.”
The top seven runners for the Seahawks
were all within just over two minutes of each
other.
Despite the nice running weather, the race
was one of the most difficult races that the
team will run all season. Run on a golf course
covered in hills, the race involved a lot of
planning and strategy.
“1 knew I had to push it through the down
hill loop," said Sullivan. “Because the up
hills were really tough.”
Given that there are very few hills in
Wilmington, UNCW’s team is unable to
practice on hiUs very often. This inexperi
ence acted as a difficulty on the hilly course.
“If you’re going to run a tough hill course,
then you need to run more hills,” said
Sullivan. “You need to prepare for each
course.”
“The uphill finish was just really hard,”
said fieshman Ben Sweet, who led the men’s
team, placing 39* out of 100 competitors.
Sweet was followed by sophomore Paul
Chokota (41''), junior Zach Galloway (46*),
and fi^shmen Jeff Riepe (47"’) and Andy
Painter (62"^). Like the women’s team, the
men also ran as a pack, with their top four
finishing within eight places of each other.
“1 think we’re working great as a team,”
said Sweet. “There’s a lot of potential out
there.”
Both teams placed behind Colonial Ath
letic Association rival East Carolina, with the
Pirates slimly defeating the women’s team
by one place, and defeating the men by three
places. The women were also defeated by
conference foe University of Richmond, who
placed fifth overall. Assistant coach Bmce
Kritzler was, nevertheless, optimistic about
the future.
“We’ll keep improving week-to-week,”
he said. “And we’ll be where we need to be
by Conference and Regionals.”
The Seahawks will proceed to Charlotte
for the Great American Invitational Friday
night, where they will meet a lot of the com
petition they faced in Raleigh.