Soaring through the air and gliding through the water, Sacramento State Water Skiing finished second overall in the Western Regional Open at Shortline Lake in Elk Grove.

Sac State hosted the two-day meet featuring 11 of the 19 member schools of the western conference, vying for five spots in the National Collegiate Water Ski Association nationals in Kentucky.

Coach Brian Dulgar has developed Sacramento State into one of the top Water Skiing programs in the country. Their qualifying for nationals keeps them second nationwide for number of nationals trips. Sac has been to nationals 23 times in the last 26 years.

This led the team to be ranked as the eighth best program in the country by WaterSki magazine.

“There are schools out there that have corporate sponsors and scholarships for out-of-state students,” Duglar said. “We are the only one in the top-eight that doesn’t do that and we pretty much recruit in-state.”

Sacramento finished only 1085 points back from national power Arizona State University. UC San Diego finished third, but more than 1300 points back from Sacramento.

Sacramento’s Ryan Selsor soared 133 feet in men’s jump on Sunday to finish fifth. Selsor was fourth overall and the highest finisher from Sacramento.

Sophomore Christie Humphries was third in women’s jump, at a personal best 86 feet in was fourth in slalom. She also finished third in trick placing her third overall in women’s competition.

“I was hoping for third place in slalom but I did my best,” Humphries said. “There’s always room for improvement but I couldn’t do any better in slalom.”

While the boat runs at about 35 miles per hour, skiers use the line to propel themselves to nearly 60 miles per hour while crossing the wake to hit the ramp on jumps.

Karl Garrett, a freshman from Chico, finished fifth in slalom after passing two buoys, but received more points for taking 38 feet off his 75-foot rope. With the distance between the boat and the buoy at 39.5 feet, Garrett ran nearly perpendicular to the water.

Garrett has been skiing since he was five years old at his parent’s private lake in Chico. His friendship to coach Brian Dulgar brought him here to Sacramento State.

“I’ve known coach B.D. for a long time and I think of him like an older brother,” Garrett said.

Garrett also came to Sacramento for the perfect waterskiing lakes.

“We are pretty fortunate to have all these homeowners that let us use their private lakes,” Garrett said. “Shortline is one of the best in California.”

Sacramento hopes to finish in the top-five at nationals.

“I would like to finish in the top-five,” Dulgar said. “We have a great opportunity with great facilities, equipment, and good coaches.”

The Hornets will travel to the NCWSA Nationals on Oct. 20-22 in Paducah, KY.

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Steven Blakesley can be reached at [email protected]