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Oct. 30, 2002

ULM Water Ski Team Relishes Their 17th National Championship as They are Tops in NCWSA's Annual Coaches Poll

The University of Louisiana-Monroe, having recently won its 17th national title in the 24-year history of the Collegiate Water Ski National Championships on Oct. 19, sits atop the final 2002 National Collegiate Water Ski Association's Coaches Poll, released last Thursday. ULM edged 2001 national champion Arizona State, which was the national runner-up this year, by just three points in the final poll. Most teams shifted one or two places in the poll.

The National Championship was brought home for the 17th time by The University of Louisiana at Monroe water ski team. They won the National Collegiate Water Ski Association National Team championship by beating the defending champions Arizona State University by a slender margin of 95 points. The Collegiate Water Ski National Championships was held in Austin, Texas.

ULM's number one ranking was enhanced by team member Regina Jaquess who leaped 147 feet to set a pending NCWSA National Women's jump record and secured the title of All-American team captain for herself.

ULM Ski Team Coach Bill Bagley said, "We regained our title. It was a true battle. I have four seniors and for them it's the best thing that could happen in the world. The weather had been horrible and raining, and the competition took place in a downpour this morning, but we did our best. It was very exciting it was a very close tournament, we went into the last event five points behind the leader and we knew it would take a solid day of skiing from each one of our men and women to fill the gap of what we needed to win. Our team just rose to the occasion and did just what we had to do under the pressure. I am very proud of them. We had our first girl jumper go out and do her personal best. The other girls jumped what they were capable of jumping, and our last jumper jumped the new national record. The old record had stood for 4 years at 143 feet."

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