Ski Sharks finish 4th at state

The Shawano Ski Sharks turned in a solid showing at the Wisconsin State Water Ski Show Championships on July 21-22 on Lake Wazeecha in Wisconsin Rapids. The team earned a couple of awards, had several individuals place well and claimed fourth place as a team.

The Ski Sharks performed as a team on July 22, racking up 1,256.8 points to come in fourth in Division 2. Shawano finished behind the Crivitz Ski Cats (1,410.02), Badwater Ski-ters (1,289.68) and Water Walkers (1,269.66).

The awards ceremony was postponed because of adverse weather in the area, so the team had to wait a little longer than usual to hear how it did. The Ski Sharks were initially a bit surprised they didn’t place higher than they did. But when factoring in some tough competition, and then looking how close in points they were to the second- and third-place teams, some of the disappointment faded away.

“The fourth-place finish is definitely respectable; there’s no doubt about it,” said Dave Passehl, team president. “Our expectations were to go there and win, and sometimes when you do that, things don’t go perfect.

“The competition was tough. The top five teams in our division were awfully good. We’ll figure out what happened. It’s always a scoring game, and we’ve got very smart people in our show and on our team that will figure that out and we’ll make adjustments for next year. The good news is that every year, we continue to get better and better, which means we’ll be just that much better next year.”

The highlight of the show was when the Ski Sharks made history putting their adaptive skier Alex Bork on the water. It was the first time an act like that ever hit the water at state.

Bork was joined by team members Faith Passehl, Sheldon Anday and Sandor Anday on the water, and that quartet won the Most Original Act Award. Passehl was swiveling while being pulled behind Bork, who was anchored by the Andays.

Carsten McHugh, the team’s show director this summer, was handed the Skip Gilkerson Showmanship Award. According to the Wisconsin Water Ski Federation website, “The Skip Gilkerson Showmanship Award recognizes the best showmanship exhibited by and individual or an act in each division. This award was established by the WWSF in 2017.”

Shawano’s high individual club act and doubles act each earned second-place marks among Division 2 teams. The team’s pyramids earned a third-place mark.

The Ski Sharks’ dock and equipment personnel earned the team 61 points and was fifth. The team’s pick-up boat crews and tow boat driving marks were also fifth and accumulated 211 and 525 points, respectively.

Shawano also earned fifth-place marks for showmanship and its sound crew. The team’s overall show mark of 1,468 was behind only the Ski Cats (1,683) and Walkers (1,617).

The Ski Sharks’ ballet line came in fourth, while its barefoot act was fifth. The team’s jump act came in sixth, while its swivel act was seventh.

Passehl said the team’s ballet line, typically one of the team’s strongest acts, crashed during the show. Luckily, the Mercury powered Malibu boats that power the team had enough time to run the ballet line again at the end of the show, and they turned in a perfect run. He said it was surprising to finish fourth in that category despite boasting the biggest line among any state team and going around perfectly in its second run.

Passehl added that in time, the fourth-place finish will be one the team looks at fondly, but he also thinks it will serve as a motivational tool going into state next year.

In the individual competition that took place July 21, Ski Sharks’ Brad Keuschel teamed up with Kylie Wallace for a fifth-place finish in the strap doubles competition with a mark of 12.43. Jessa Jochman and Carsten McHugh placed 16th with a score of 6.56.

Faith Passehl competed in the Division 1 swivel competition. Even after one fall, she earned a score of 14.33 with a routine she described as “very technically difficult” to place sixth.

Cody Siolka, who competed under the Ski Sharks’ team name, placed second in the freestyle jump with a mark of 485.

At the WWSF Division 2 individual tournament in Shawano on July 16, Shawano’s Faith McHugh placed 10th in the intermediate swivel competition. Carsten McHugh won the intermediate freestyle jump competition, while teammate Ben Wagner was third.

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