Krueger, Nightingale Named USA Water Skis 2006 Athletes Of The Year

Freddy Krueger of Winter Garden, Fla., who went undefeated in 2006 and set a world jumping record, and Mandy Nightingale of Sapulpa, Okla., who set a new Women’s world tricks record for the first time in seven years, were selected USA Waterski's 2006 Male and Female Athletes of the Year, respectively.

Krueger won every event in which he competed in 2006 by an average margin of nearly seven feet. He also recorded the longest jump of the year and was the only athlete to leap beyond the 230-foot mark, soaring 237 feet at the Masters, 238 feet at a cash-prize event in North Carolina and 243 feet at the McCormick Record No. 5 event in November. The latter is a pending world record, eclipsing the 240-foot mark he posted in October 2005. Krueger earned USA Water Ski’s Male Athlete of the Year award an unprecedented six times.

Nightingale is a first-time recipient of USA Water Ski’s Female Athlete of the Year award and previously won Women’s world tricks titles in 2003 and 2005. In 2006 she won two World Cup events and the series title for Women’s tricks, and her second consecutive U.S. Open Women’s tricks title. But her most impressive accomplishment came in July when she set a new Women’s world tricks record of 8,740 points at the Pickos International Cup in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla. Nightingale is one of only five women who have set the Women’s world tricks record in the past 31 years.