LAKELAND - The Florida Southern Men's and Women's Water Ski teams will look to conclude its season with a national championship this weekend at the 2012 National Collegiate Water Ski Association (NCWSA) Championships held at TriLakes Water Ski Facility in Zachary, La.
The Moccasins enter the championships as the No. 1 ranked team in the country after easily winning the Eastern Regional Championship nearly two weeks ago in Duncanville, Ala. At the Eastern Regional Championships, the Mocs scored 6,975 points to easily outdistance Alabama (6,370 points), who finished second and Rollins (5,665 points), who finished in third place. Along with taking home the combined title at the Eastern Regionals, FSC also was the champion on both the men's side (3,995 points) and women's side (2,455 points).
"We're excited to compete this weekend. We know what to expect after our outstanding performance last season at nationals, so we'll be ready for the challenge," Mocs head coach Roger Skalko said. "We have a very good team that comes in with a lot of momentum following our performance at regionals, but there will be some really good teams here this weekend with some outstanding athletes."
This season's NCWSA Nationals will get underway on Thursday, Oct. 18 with the slalom competition in Division I, which is the division the Mocs will be competing in. Joining FSC in the Division I team competition is Louisiana-Monroe, who is the defending NCWSA National Champions and earned a spot in this year's championships by claiming the South Central Regional title, Wisconsin-LaCrosse, who is the Midwest Regional Champion and Arizona State, who claimed the West Regional title. Other teams competiting in Division I are Alabama (Eastern Regional runner-up), Louisiana-Lafayette (South Central Regional runner-up), Rollins College (Eastern Regional third-place team), Purdue University (Midwest Regional runner-up), Miami [OH] (Midwest Regional third-place team), University of Kansas (Midwest Regional fourth-place team), University of Cincinnati (Midwest Regional fifth-place team) and Iowa State University (Wildcard winner).
This year, the NCWSA Championships will also have a second division, Division II. The teams competing for the Division II title are the University of Michigan (Wildcard runner-up), Clemson (Eastern Regional fourth-place team), University of California-Davis (Western Regional runner-up), Texas State University (South Central Regional third-place team), UC-San Diego (Western Regional fourth-place team), University of North Carolina (Eastern Regional fifth-place team), Cal Poly (Western Regional third-place team), Cal State-Chico (Western Regional fifth-place team), University of Texas (South Central Regional fourth-place team), Texas A&M (South Central Regional fifth-place team) and Grand Valley State (Wildcard third-place).
At the Eastern Regional Championships, freshman Thibault Dailand (Orthez, France) was the overall men's champion as he a total of 1,130 points after finishing first in both tricks and jumping and placing second in slalom, while sophomore Lauren Morgan (Odessa, Fla.) finished second in the women's overall competition as she scored 815 points after winning the jumping competition, finishing third in slalom and fourth in the tricks competition.
Last season, the Mocs finished third at the 2011 NCWSA Championships as they scored 10,675 points in the 12-team Division I field. The FSC women took home first place honors with 5,855 points, while the men's team came in fourth place with 4,820 points.
Complete information, along with a live webcast and results of the NCWSA Championships are available here.