CONKLIN, MICHIGAN - GVSU's Waterski and Wakeboard Club had recently finished 1st place at this year's Allentucky Waterbowl on September 7th-8th. Grand Valley was joined by 5 other teams, such as Michigan State University and Ferris State University, but became victorious as a team and individually.

The Allentucky Waterbowl consists of 3 events; slalom, tricks, and jumps. Slalom is an event that takes 3 separate factors and implements them into the event. First is the amount of buoys that the competitor skis around, the speed at which you are taking these turns, and the rope length. The goal of this event is for one to ski around as many buoys as they possibly can while increasing their speed and shortening the amount of rope that you ski behind. For the tricks event, each participant is given 20 seconds to show off their skills by performing eligible tricks in front of the judges, but if one ends up falling, then your time is cut short. Lastly, the jump event is considered to be the most intriguing event. You are given specially designed skis, a helmet, and a padded jumpsuit. To start the event, one prepares themselves to jump over a 5ft ramp, with a speed between 24 mph-32 mph depending on your skill level, and then the participant that ends up with the most distance is the winner of this event.

The Waterski and Wakeboard Club had multiple participants who placed in these events and developed a new personal best jump distance, tricks, and more. Firstly, Megan Fischette placed in all 3 events; 1st in Slalom, 3rd in women's jumps, and 3 in women's tricks, which became a new personal best. Matt Freitag was another big winner placing 3rd in men's jumps with a new personal best of 95ft. Sydnie Lipski was another participant who had placed in all 3 events, those being 2nd in women's tricks, 4th in women's slalom, and 4th in women's jumps, all of these becoming a new personal best for her to top performances off! Placing 4th in women's trick and developing 2 new personal bests with slalom and tricks is Bri Baughman. Jackie Karemh also had a night with placing 5th in women's jumps, which had also become a jump personal best with a distance of 39ft. Lastly, Delaney Novach had placed 5th in women's slalom. 

Not only was it a great 2 days for those Lakers, but we cannot forget about these Lakers who had gained new personal bests to beat in the next tournament! Caroline De Roo and Joe Brock with their 1st jumps landed, Lex Bontemps with a new jump PB, Alex Underhill with slalom 1.5 at 28/trick 290, and Mario Dannunzio with trick 280 and 56ft in jumps!

Congratulations to the Lakers who showed up to their first tournament of this season and made anyone watching proud! We look forward to seeing what the next tournaments bring!

The weekend of March 16th-17th was a very successful one for GVSU Men’s Club Volleyball’s A team. The team traveled to Davenport University for the second round of the Great Lakes Men’s Volleyball conference tournament. Sitting in first place without dropping a single set, the team ended up losing their last match to Bowling Green Saturday night. The Lakers started bracket play Sunday with two large margin wins against Ferris State and Western Michigan. The championship was set for a rematch against Bowling Green. After winning the first set 25-23, the Lakers fell to an eight point deficit to start the second set. After battling back, they dropped the second set 25-21 forcing another three match game. A back and forth battle found the Lakers tied 10-10 in a first to 15 race. A serving run by Greg Janes put them up 14-11. A beautifully placed serve by Jack Norkiewicz finished off with a block from Paden Rousseau gave the laker men’s club volleyball team their first conference championship since 2017. 

The Laker Men’s Volleyball team had multiple award recipients for all conference honors. First team all-conference team included junior setter Jacob Fiandalo, senior middle blocker Paden Rousseau and freshman middle blocker Michael Uldrych. Both graduate students Greg Janes and Sam Szarowicz earned second team for outside hitter. AJ Zanders, Easton Upton, and Mack Tyrell earned honorable mention awards. 

Special shoutout to all the parents who bring food, drinks, and endless support to our team as well as our friends. The success of this program would not be possible without them, our coaches, and club sports. 

We look forward to trying to repeat next year!