Hixson resident Caroline Hensley competes in the National Collegiate Water Ski Association national championships last weekend at Zachary, La. She led Alabama to a fourth-place finish by winning the women’s slalom title for the second year in a row and tying for second overall.At age 21, Caroline Hensley of Hixson is done, essentially, as a collegiate water skier.
But the leader of the University of Alabama team went out strong and is far from finished on the international level.
She’s headed to Chile for the 2013 Elite World Championships, in fact, after first going to the Elite Worlds last year in Russia. She had years of junior international experience before that and was the world’s No. 1-ranked under-21 female in 2011.
After winning both the women’s slalom and overall collegiate titles last year, and finishing second in trick skiing, Hensley repeated as the national slalom champion in last week’s competition at Zachary, La., near Baton Rouge. She was fourth in trick and sixth in the third event, jump, and tied for second overall with Lauren Morgan of Florida Southern.
FSC’s Manon Costard, who is from Marseille, France, was the women’s overall winner with 1,660 points to 1,630 for Hensley and Morgan.