The 2002 tournament season was officially kicked off this past weekend in Central Florida with a flurry of activity that kept Interstate 4 between Tampa and Orlando buzzing throughout the weekend. McCormick Lakes has a new look for 2002. The housing quarters for both students and staff have been expanded and improved, the grounds have taken on a new look with changes all over the place. The pro shop is well stocked and organized. All three lakes are being used. The new kitchen and dining room is nothing short of spectacular. And a lot more improvements are on the way, including a second jump that will placed in the main lake so that jumping can always be held in a head wind no matter which direction the wind is blowing. A new air conditioned, centralized judges/scoring tower is planned--- wow! Of course, a lot of this is the direct result of a woman's influence, as one might imagine. Seems that Jennifer Kaiser is the person behind the scenes at McCormick's nowadays. Last weekend you could find her taking care of tournament registration, working in the pro shop, preparing lunch for the officials, staff, and students, riding in the pick up boat for jump, and skiing in the tournament. The McCormick's again hosted the annual McCormick International Cup in Seffner, FL and, as usual, a ton of PBs and records fell. Some of the notable performances included PBs by Marc Shaw (202'- first time over the magical 200' mark), Tanya Niebuhr (158'- first time over the magical 150' mark), Tyler McDermeit (165'- first time he has beat Regina in any event at a tournament), Joy Todd (141' in Girls 3--- making her the odds on favorite in jumping at the Junior Masters this year) and Daniel Cappelli (9,540pts.- Swiss record). Open Men and Women jumping was spectacular. Led by awesome jump drivers Dave Beebe and Les Todd, the performances were more indicative of a late season jump tournament. Scot Ellis is back on form and led the Men with an awesome 221' leap. Sebastian DiPasquale, Jason Seels, Marc Shaw, and Michael McCormick all jumped beyond the 200' mark. But if anything stole the show, it was the incredible jumping of the Open Women. They were led by Italy's Marina Mosti (who has been training with Mr. Ski Fly Ellis for months) at 165', followed by Team USA's Regina Jaquess (159') on her new O'Brien 90" sticks. Tanya Niebuhr (now from the United Kingdom and formerly a United Arab Emirates Junior Team skier) had only jumped in the mid 140s prior to this tournament. After seeing the Correct Craft 150' jump club trophies that a couple of her fellow skiers had received, decided she wanted a trophy as well. Next thing you know, she goes 158'!! Jennifer Kaiser, who last year at the US Nationals set the Women 1 jump record at 155', pushed a couple out there as well. South Carolinian Jennifer Wood, another 150' club member, spanked a couple of nice early season leaps to finish off the event. On Saturday afternoon, World Champion Team USA was recognized at the Hall of Fame press conference, which was held at the AWSEF HQ in Polk County (about 30 minutes from McCormick's). Each member of the team received Superbowl size championship rings complete with six diamonds and massive amounts of gold. Team members included Freddy Krueger, Ben Favret, Russell Gay, Regina Jaquess, Brandi Hunt, and Rhoni Barton. Larry Meddock presented the coveted 200' and 150' jump trophies to those that had gone over those distances in the past year. This is a special award that Correct Craft instituted about six years ago. There have been about 76 men and 35 women eclipse those respective marks in the past. As mentioned previously, Marc Shaw and Tanya Niebuhr will be first in line next year to pick up their trophies!! After the jump event, Jim McCormick posed with 5 of the women jumpers that are members of the 150' club. McCormick "Angel Flight" members include Marina Mosti, Regina Jaquess, Jennifer Kaiser, Tanya Niebuhr, and Jennifer Wood. These girls can fly--!! Regina led OW slalom with a run of 3 @ 38' off; Chris Parrish led OM. In general, trick scores (with the exception of "Fix" Cappelli) were off the mark as everyone was trying new trick runs for the upcoming season. Report by James Jaquess