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Rock Aqua Jays Water Ski Show Team earns team honors

POLK CITY, Fla. – USA Water Ski has selected Andrew Adkison (Chipley, Fla.) and Regina

Jaquess (Santa Rosa Beach, Fla.) as its Male Athlete of the Month and Female Athlete of the Month, respectively, for July. The Rock Aqua Jays Water Ski Show Team (Janesville, Wis.) was selected team of the month. Adkison and Jaquess are now eligible for the United States Olympic Committee’s Athlete of the Month honors.

Adkison won the gold medal in men’s wakeboarding at the 9th World Games, July 26-29, in Cali, Colombia, scoring 73.01 points in the finals. Adkison won his quarterfinal heat with a score of 71.66 points to earn the top seed for one of two semifinal heats, and then scored 58.69 points in the semifinals to earn the No. 5 seed for the finals, where he tallied the highest score – 73.01 points – of the World Games.

Jaquess won gold medals in women’s slalom and jumping at the 9th World Games, July 26-29, in Cali, Colombia. Jaquess won the gold medal in women’s slalom, scoring 2 buoys at 38 feet off in the finals. She won the gold medal in women’s jumping with a distance of 162 feet/49.4 meters. Jaquess also set a pending women’s world slalom record of 3-1/2 buoys at 41 feet off on July 5 at the Freedom Slalom Fest 2 at the Utopia River Ranch in San Marcos, Texas. If approved by the International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation’s Tournament Council, the score will eclipse the current world record of 3 buoys at 41 feet off originally set by Jaquess on June 17, 2012, in Canton, Miss.

The Rock Aqua Jays Water Ski Show Team won the team title at the 47th Wisconsin State Show Ski Championships, July 18-21, at Lake Wazeecha in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. The tournament included 26 show ski teams from across the state competing in three divisions. The Rock Aqua Jays, the two-time defending national champion, won the box scores for dock and equipment personnel, pick-up boat crews, towboat driving, showmanship, sound crew and overall show, and earned top-scoring awards for pyramid and barefooting (tie) in tallying a grand total of 1,963.14 points. In competitive show skiing, each club has one hour to present a theatrical performance on water skis. Judges score the acts by awarding points based on execution, difficulty, spectator appeal and flow. Elaborate costumes and staging intermix with music and fast action on the water as an announcer leads the audience through the show.

USA Water Ski was formed in 1939 as a non-profit organization promoting water skiing in the United States. USA Water Ski is affiliated with the International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation (world governing body) and is recognized by the United States Olympic Committee and Pan-American Sports Organization as the national governing body of organized water skiing in the United States.