 Richfield, WI October 12, 2008: It all started Friday morning with beautiful weather, high hopes and eager competitors as DockDogs® kicked off it's 2008 Cabela's National Championship in Richfield, Wisconsin. With record-breaking participation and unbelievable fan turn out, DockDogs® produced the largest field of teams and entries in the history of our sport with 468 entries for our preliminary rounds and 271 teams participating in finals. Local Media, including television crews from a FOX affiliate, enhanced the crowds during Friday's events, capturing film and interviewing some of the great DockDogs® families.
With the sun high in the sky, energy filled the air as competitors from all over the country gathered to Cabela's in Richfield, Wisconsin. Two competition docks faced off end to end providing nonstop action and activities all weekend long. As competitors raced to claim their space in Cabela's spacious lots reserved for DockDogs®, "Tent City" erected itself in a matter of hours, and the largest little DockDogs® community emerged from the asphalt to produce fun, food and sportsmanship all weekend long.
Getting off on the right foot, Friday's festivities began with close competitions in Extreme Vertical, Novice and Junior Big Air Preliminary Rounds, Lap Dog Finals and our newest DockDogs® competition of IronDog, Big Air. With a four-way tie for first place in our EV Cadet Preliminary Round, Whitney & Remi, Todd & Snickers, Cyndi & Murphy and Brian & Mishka, all advanced to our Sunday Finals. Following or Cadet lead, EV TopGun Competitors saw a vicious jump-off between 4 strong teams fighting for the last three spots in the finals. In the end, six teams advanced including Lee & Chopper, Jeff & Ares and Don & Huckleberry.
With six dogs entering our Lap Dog Division fighting for 1st place, Susan Smith & Little a one and a half year old Jack Russell Terrier from Springfield, IL leaped into the final four with a second round jump of 12'8." Little, who joined us at the Illinois State Fair this past August, flew high in the finals with an overall astounding second place finish of 14'8," two feet more then her previous score! Rounding out the final 4 in our Lap Dog Finals were DockDogs® People's Choice Award Most Inspiring Team of Sarah & Forrest Gumpy clinching the gold with a final jump of 17'11" and Jennifer with Miss Molly and Megan with Jack took home 3rd and 4th place respectively.
Novice and Junior Big Air Competitions found 8 dogs in each Division happily finding spots in the finals. Both Whitney with Remi and Alisa with Abraham were two of the final 8 in the Novice Division holding tightly onto their spots for Finals with only two inches separating them between first and second place. Fred Hassen with Rex & Joey Spurlock with his one year old lab Rusty also waved a sigh of relief as they took the number one and two spot in the finals for the Junior Division. With spectators and competitors awaiting the weekend's results, none could tell how exciting it would be.
Following in Friday's footsteps, Saturday's events were just as if not more exciting with preliminary rounds in Big Air Master, Senior, Elite and SuperElite Divisions, Speed Retrieve Competitions in IronDog and preliminary rounds and final rounds in Novice, Junior Divisions. Saturday's Senior Preliminary Round brought nearly 90 dogs to the dock to face off one by one to see who would make the final 8. In the end, Liane and Tank finished 1st overall
With the final day upon us, competitors geared up for the jam-packed day with final rounds in all three Extreme Vertical Competitions of IronDog, Cadet and TopGun, Veteran, Senior, Master, Elite and SuperElite Big Air and Speed Retrieve.
The competition was a close call with the top five Iron Dog teams neck and neck. Britten Jay and Caddis prevailed when all was said and done with a Total points accumulation of 2990.92 edging out Dave Speed and Jumpin George with a close 2988.30. And so we go…forward into 2009 as the new Iron Dog competition is already shaping up to be a great race!
A big thank you to all our competitors who joined us over the long weekend in Richfield Wisconsin. DockDogs® would also like to extend a special thank you to Cabela's for their continued support and to all the staff who worked with us over the weekend. Of course, we would also like to recognize our other generous sponsors including Dokken's and Splash Pools, without all of your support we could not do this!
For more information on becoming a part of DockDogs® or for a complete listing soon to be released for our 2009 calendar of events, please visit our website at www.dockdogs.com.
For 2008 National results, please see the results by visiting the 2008 National results page.
Thank you for a great year!!!
For a summary of the Awards from this year's banquet, including the winners of the 2008 People's Choice Awards, please see: http://www.dockdogs.com/Documents/08- yearend awards.pdf.
Congratulations to all award winners!
DockDogs® is the independent governing and sanctioning body for regional, national and international dock jumping performance sports. DockDogs® establishes the rules and standards of the sport, tracks results and records and supports and promotes the growth of its athletes, events, spectators, and sponsors.
For additional information visit www.dockdogs.com |
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