After a year without the championships, the Ragin’ Cajuns Water Ski team came back strong with a championship win this year. The team claimed their second consecutive Division 1 national title and total overall eighth championship at the Syndicate Waterskis 42nd Collegiate Water Ski National Championships.
Louisiana finished with 12,930 points to secure the win. In addition to this amazing feat, the team went undefeated this season. The team also earned Division 1 national championships in 1995, 1997, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2019.
There were 12 total teams competing for the national title. Right behind Louisiana in second place was the University of Alabama. In order to make it to the national championships, teams must qualify based on their prior tournament performances.
The event featured three events for women and three for men: slalom, tricks and jump. Additionally, skiers could compete for individual national titles in those events and overall titles based on the combined results in those three events. Athletes finishing in the top five in each event of slalom, tricks, jumping and overall in Division 1 earned All-American honors.
Dorien Llewellyn earned the men’s overall title for the Cajuns while Luke Outram came in second. Alice Bagnoli came in sixth overall in the women’s competition. For individual events, many Ragin’ Cajuns finished in top 10 positions.
Jaimee Bull won the women’s individual slalom competition. Alexandra Garcia followed in third. Annemarie Wroblewski was sixth and Bailey Austin finished seventh.
Kennedy Hansen came in first in the women’s trick individual competition. Bagnoli finished ninth and Austin finished tenth.
In the women’s jump event, Hansen finished fifth, Bagnoli finished seventh and Sage Pottbecker finished tenth. The men earned high-achieving individual results as well.
Arron Davies won the men’s individual slalom competitions. Llewellyn finished fifth, Sean Kraus came in sixth and Outram finished ninth.
Guillaume Tétreault led in third in the men’s trick competition. Llewellyn followed in fourth and Edoardo Marenzi finished sixth. Outram followed in seventh, while Conley Pinette followed in eighth.
In the men’s jump competition, Pinette placed second, while Luca Rauchenwald came in third. Outram finished sixth, Llewellyn finished ninth and Marenzi finished tenth.
Besides going to the national championships each October, the team competes within the South Central Region for collegiate water skiing. As part of their season, they compete in six tournaments each year between Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. Louisiana also hosts its own tournament each spring in Lafayette.
The team has members from 10 different countries, all with a similar passion for water skiing. As a team they work together, encourage one another and support each other on and off the water. The team is led by Head Coach Ryan Gonzales.
Louisiana trains at Airport Lake, which is 10 minutes from campus and equipped with a brand new boat and courses each year. The training site is run and maintained by the ski team to have the best training conditions possible.