Skiing to a championship

Mitchell to compete for regional title

By WILL HARRIS
Sports Writer

Monday, July 27, 2009

Beaver Lake has become a water skiing hot bed, drawing some of the top skiers from around the world to many of its annual events. Now, Beaver Lake has spawn a top skier of its own.

Kelsie Mitchell, 16, won first place in the Girls 3 Overall at the North Carolina State Water Ski Championships at Clear Lake near Lexington.

“I was hoping to get first in trick,” said Mitchell. “I have really been working on my scores, so I was happy with that. I won the overall with my trick score, so that was really cool.”

The overall is a combination of trick, jump and slalom and Mitchell topped all the girls in the 13-17 age division. She took first in trick, her best event, second in jump, then had to settle for second in slalom after losing in a tiebreaker run-off

“I had a feeling, I thought I was going to win, because there was only one other person on my division that really did trick, so there was not as much competition as there would be at regionals,” Mitchell said.

She will find that out first hand on Wednesday when she will travel to Paducah, Ky., to compete in the Southern Regional championships. Mitchell will compete in all three events and she knows she will need her best performances.

“If you look at all (the competition’s scores), if you don’t ski your best and your score drops, you might not place,” she said. “The judges there are a lot tougher than the local tournaments.”

The regional draw skiers from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama.