April 4-5, 2003

Rochelle Middle School

Rochelle, IL

Hosted by:

The Unicycle University

Midwest Regionals a HUGE Success

We planned, we attended, we competed, we ate a LOT of food, and we had a whole lot of fun! The Midwest Regional competition was held on April 4-5, 2003 in Rochelle, IL and drew close to 100 riders and even more spectators from Rochelle, Minneapolis and other surrounding areas. The weekend was exciting from start to finish and it seems that everyone had an absolutely great time. Many people took many photographs and I’m sure they will surface as soon as folks have time to arrive home and get them processed.

You can view and purchase pictures of your choosing or David Barrow offers a special deal especially for the unicycling community. He says, " For $35 you can choose a photo of an individual and I will run down all their photos and put them on a CD. I'm sure these run into the dozens for some folks. I don't do this for most groups. Anyone with more than four or five photos really ought to get this."

So check out all the great stuff. It'll be like living the weekend all over again.

The weekend began on Friday night with open gyms and ended late night with some fast-paced hockey action. On Saturday, we reconvened for what turned out to be a very long but very rewarding day. We began the morning session with slowboard and obstacle course competition while we turned Max Dingeman loose on constructing the trials course and Cool Carol McLean and Kool Kelsey loose in the gym corralling the kids of all ages for some great fun and games. Thanks to all for their wonderful contributions.

The afternoon was reserved for the Standard Skills and Freestyle competition. Connie Cotter carried out her customary wonderful performance as chief judge (thanks, Connie! We love you!) while a host of volunteer judges devoted themselves to a long afternoon of judging and scoring. Kudos to our judging panel! Twin Cities provided their usual chin-dropping entertainment through expertly performed routines while The Unicycle Uni-versity watched with pride as many of our riders performed in their very first competition including my favorite, our club’s very first pairs freestyle routine performed beautifully by Carly McGee and Kelsey Mellor. I was especially proud of three girls whose families had just recently found out about the event, made quick plans and attended. Melissa from Rockton, IL had never seen another person riding a unicycle until she attended two of our club practices very recently. Melissa competed and ended up winning a first place in the obstacle course. Kimberly from Chicago just learned to ride very recently. She and her family made their way to the event where Kim competed in Standard Skills and also won a first place in slowboards. Kara from Rock Falls, IL rides in a circus in her hometown but wasn’t aware of many of the tricks that can be performed on a unicycle. By the end of the day, she was making leaps and bounds in learning new ways to ride her unicycle. Won’t her circus be surprised!

Following the freestyle events, we held our award ceremony and raffle. There is a real intimacy between small hometown folks and their local businesses. During our planning for the weekend, we approached many Rochelle businesses for help and support and were overwhelmingly blessed in abundance with funds, gifts, food and supplies. We raffled off two unicycles graciously donated by Unicycle.com and Hub City Bikes in Rochelle in what turned out to have possibly been the most significant point of the entire weekend…Gilby did not win a unicycle! He did win a sugar and cream dinnerware set. Bon appetite, Gilby.

Of course, every good Regionals event has to have a hockey tourney. Andy Cotter organized the tourney for us and did his usual great job. Sure did appreciate your help, Andy. I didn’t get to see much of the hockey but I understand that there was a thoughtful interchange between Christy Grider and Max Dingeman. Christy, heading the ball is usually reserved for soccer!

Of course at the end of all things good comes the party. After the dust of competition settled, we headed for the Catholic Learning Center building around the corner from the Middle School (everything is close-by in Rochelle) for a grand get together. Our guests enjoyed ping-pong, pool, foosball, table games, and some good ol’ kickin’ back and relaxin’. After such a long, long day, I always wonder how the kids have any energy left over. It was a great time to get crazy for a while. On top of all the left over food, we ordered a whole-buncha pizza. It was almost as if we starved the crew for the whole weekend. What a bunch of ravenous wolves!

The Edwards family was blessed to provide housing for Andy Cotter, Irene Genelin, and Neil Younggren. Possibly the best story of the weekend…Andy and Neil slept in Ben’s bunkbeds with Neil opting for the bottom bunk. We warned Neil that our big male Golden Retriever, Riley, usually sleeps in Ben’s bed and not to be surprised if he has a visitor during the night. I asked Neil the next morning if he had company in bed that night and sure enough, he said Riley had come into the room and jumped up onto the foot of the bed. That was okay according to Neil. But pretty soon, Riley was stretched out along the length of the bed, then rolled over onto his back with his paws in the air and pinned Neil against the wall. I guess the moral of the story is…next time, beat Andy up the stairs and be the first to claim the top bunk.

I’m so very grateful to so many people that I couldn’t begin to name them all. Our organizing committee was tops. They worked so hard and long to put on the event and I believe it showed by how smoothly the weekend seemed to flow. Sue Shields, Bill Gilbertson and Bob Hanson from Twin Cities worked tirelessly with many of our kids on their skills. So many others…many thanks to you all.

Our unicycle community is one of a kind. You folks are the best! When we purchased our very first little yellow Jugglebug uni for Christmas 2000, we had absolutely no idea that the world of unicycling existed. Now I think we’ll find a special place for that little uni as it was the key opening us up to a wide and wonderful world of one-wheeling fun and excitement.

Results

11-13 Female Slowboards	Kimberly Bucki	Alsip, IL	11.41 sec.
	Melissa Ross	Rockton, IL	10.03 sec.

0-10 Male Slowboards	Brad Edwards	Unicycle Uni-versity	21.88 sec.

11-13 Male Slowboards	Ben Edwards	Unicycle Uni-versity	15.47 sec.
	Jerry Moffitt	Unicycle Uni-versity	13.35 sec.
	Steve Wallace	Unicycle Uni-versity	9.53 sec.
	Will Patrick	Unicycle Uni-versity	DQ

14-17 Male Slowboards	Kyle Arreguin	Unicycle Uni-versity	5.50 sec.

18+ Male Slowboards	Jeff Thompson	Springfield, IL	8.35 sec.

0-10 Female Obstacle Course	Kara Johnson	Rock Falls, IL	40.85 sec.
	Beth Shields	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	43.67 sec.

11-13 Female Obstacle Course	Melissa Ross	Rockton, IL	35.22 sec.
	Kimberly Bucki	Alsip, IL	43.66 sec.

0-10 Male Obstacle Course	Ryan Hanson	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	27.68 sec.
	Brian Shields	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	28.28 sec.
	Brad Edwards	Unicycle Uni-versity	33.17 sec.
	Collin Woessner	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	40.16 sec.

11-13 Male Obstacle Course	Justin Woessner	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	26.46 sec.
	Jerry Moffitt	Unicycle Uni-versity	30.85 sec.
	Will Patrick	Unicycle Uni-versity	33.37 sec.
	Tim Mallory	Unicycle Uni-versity	34.78 sec.
	Aaron Schmid	Kankakee, IL	43.03 sec.
	Nathan Chesley	Unicycle Uni-versity	47.25 sec.
	Adam Kearns	Unicycle Uni-versity	64.56 sec.

18+ Male Obstacle Course	Jeff Thompson	Springfield, IL	41.81 sec.

Beginner Female Standard Skills	Kelsey Mellor	Unicycle Uni-versity	202.100
	Melissa Ross	Rockton, IL	201.850
	Kara Johnson	Rock Falls, IL	200.950

Intermediate Female Standard Skills	Carly McGee	Unicycle Uni-versity	208.250
	Kimberly Bucki	Alsip, IL	205.800
	Beth Shields	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	202.700

Advance Female Standard Skills	Rebecca Weber	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	248.950
	Christy Grider	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	245.050
	Mallory McGee	Unicycle Uni-versity	214.475

Expert Female Standard Skills	Amy Shields	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	274.975
	Irene Genelin	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	263.600
	Hannah Johnson	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	258.925

Beginner Male Standard Skills	Nathan Chesley	Unicycle Uni-versity	203.050
	Kyle Arreguin	Unicycle Uni-versity	202.950
	Adam Kearns	Unicycle Uni-versity	201.350

Intermediate B Male Standard Skills	Randy Lewis	Unicycle Uni-versity	205.075
	Patrick Combs	Unicycle Uni-versity	200.575
	Steve Wallace	Unicycle Uni-versity	196.450
	Aaron Patrick	Unicycle Uni-versity	192.275

Intermediate A Male Standard Skills	Brad Edwards	Unicycle Uni-versity	227.675
	Karl Wigert	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	211.350
	Will Patrick	Unicycle Uni-versity	194.600

Advanced Male Standard Skills	Brian Shields	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	241.900
	Jerry Moffitt	Unicycle Uni-versity	230.175
	Tim Mallory	Unicycle Uni-versity	226.400


Expert Male Standard Skills	Ryan Woessner	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	263.875
	Ben Edwards	Unicycle Uni-versity	237.225
	Bill Gilbertson	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	231.375

Beginner Female Individual Freestyle	Beth Shields	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	1st Place
	Carly McGee	Unicycle Uni-versity	2nd Place

Beginner Male Individual Freestyle	Steve "Wally" Wallace	Unicycle Uni-versity	1st Place
	Adam Kearns	Unicycle Uni-versity	2nd Place

Expert Individual Freestyle	Ryan Woessner	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	1st Place
	Amy Shields	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	2nd Place
	Christy Grider	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	3rd Place
	Lindsey Johnson	Twin Cities Unicycle Club
	Hannah Johnson	Twin Cities Unicycle Club

Beginner Pairs Freestyle	Bill Gilbertson/Beth Shields	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	1st Place
	Carly McGee/Kelsey Mellor	Unicycle Uni-versity	2nd Place

Expert Pairs Freestyle	Ryan Woessner/Amy Shields	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	1st Place
	Brian Shields/Hannah Johnson	Twin Cities Unicycle Club	2nd Place