JJ Paulovich and Sage Pottbecker kicked off the 2020 Northeast Slalom Series with huge scores at the Twin Lakes 3 Event to take early leads in the season standings.

JJ scored 1 at 39-1/2 off (1104 NOPS points) to top the Adult field, with Hutch Haines (956 NOPS) and Scott Cerosky (752 NOPS) rounding out the top three.

Sage rounded 4 buoys at 35 off (1071 NOPS) to earn top series points in the Junior division. Sam Hill (878 NOPS) and Brendan O’Brien (763 NOPS) finished second and third, respectively.

Stop 2 of the series took place July 4th at Pangaea Puddle (awaiting scores), while Stop No. 3 will be held July 10-12 at the Pre-Regionals in Avon, CT. View the entire series schedule here.

At the conclusion of the series, the top eight adults and four juniors will qualify for the head-to-head series championships, Sept. 5th, at Pangaea.

Congratulations to Skip Hommel and Leland Carpenter for winning the adult and junior divisions, respectively, at the 2019 Northeast Slalom Series finals held, Aug. 31st, at Pangaea Puddle in Canajoharie, N.Y.

The No. 3 seed in the adult division, Skip topped Ray Newmark, Scott Behner and Kathy Callan on the way to the title. The win earned Skip the $650 first-place prize. Kathy collected the second-place prize of $325 and Scott the third-place prize of $175.

In the junior division, Leland, the No. 4 seed, edged Collin Frucci and Aaron Bartlett to earn the win. Tia Byrne also competed in the Final Four.

The 2019 Northeast Slalom Series was generously supported by Avon Self Storage, Hands to Heal Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork and GOODE Skis.

After seven stops and six states, the 2019 Northeast Slalom Series finalists have been determined.

The Tom Costello/Alan Rossi Vermont State Championships (see results here) shuffled the decks a bit, but not enough to cause a major change in the eight adult skiers qualified for the head-to-head finals.

The 2019 NESS adult finalists are:

• Shannah Pochini – 640 points
• J.J. Paulovich – 630 points
• Dan Warner – 620 points
• Justin Campfield – 565 points
• Skip Hommel – 560 points
• Dana Hinman – 550 points
• Pat Morrill – 510 points
• Kathy Callan – 490 points

In the Junior division, the four finalists are:

• Collin Frucci – 510 points
• Tia Byrne – 480 points
• Brendan O’Brien – 430 points
• Ty Robbins – 390 points

Click here for the full season standings.

The head-to-head finals will take place Saturday, Aug. 31, at Pangaea Puddle in Canajoharie, NY. The adults will compete for a cash-prize purse of more than $1,000 while the juniors will compete for trophies.

The 2019 Northeast Slalom Series is generously supported by Avon Self Storage, Hands to Heal Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork and GOODE Skis.

Six Northeast Slalom Series stops are down and only one to go to determine who will face off in the head-to-head finals, Aug. 31st, at Pangaea. (See season standings here)

Stop No. 6 – the Dubes Pond Classic XXX – saw Skip Hommel and Colin Frucci come out on top of the adult and junior divisions, respectively. Colin used the win to vault to the top of the junior season-long standings, while Skip’s victory put him in the top-7 of the adult rankings.

The final stop before the NESS finals is the Costello/Rossi Vermont State Championships, Saturday, Aug. 24th, at Wrightsville Reservoir in Montpelier.

At the conclusion of the series, the top eight adults and four juniors will qualify for the series championships at Pangaea.

With a field of 22 adult skiers, the third stop of the 2019 Northeast Slalom Series offered up a pile of points, which J.J. Paulovich used to expand his lead in the season standings. J.J. scored 4 buoys at 38-feet off at the Pre-Regionals Warmup in Avon, CT, to tally an even 1,000 NOPS points, enough to win the third stop and add 220 points to his season total. Dan Warner, who was in second place coming into Avon, also finished second at the stop to maintain his ranking. Dana Hinman, Justin Campfield and Shannah Pochini currently occupy spots 3-5 in the season rankings, respectively. In the Junior ranks, Tia Byrne made her 2019 NESS debut count by topping the field and earning 110 NESS points, enough to put her in second place on the season behind the leader Brendan O’Brien. NESS stop No. 4 will take place July 21st at the Russ Cole Massachusetts State Championships in Oakham, Mass., with Regionals the following week at Avon serving as stop No. 5. For more information about NESS, including schedule and standings, visit www.waterskitheeast.com.