Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

My name is Anne Baggenstos. I’m 23 years old and have been racing for 9 years now.  I started racing J stock runabout and hydro and AXS runabout and hydro. My first year I went to nationals down in Copperopolis CA. and I got 11th place in the finals for J hydro. That same year I won my first, first in J hydro after flipping during testing. That was in Scooteny WA. To cap off a great rookie year I got a world record in AXS runabout at Devils Lake OR. That was a wild run. It was really bad weather on Saturday; they had put a warning out right before I ran, saying if you run it’s at your own risk. My dad, my uncle, and I looked at the water we even looked through binoculars. It really didn’t look that bad. We decided to try it. I went out and it was really rough. I decided to go for it anyways.  About halfway down the course I ran into a huge roller. The boat got shoved under the water when I came back up (still in the boat and trying to race) I hit another roller and stood the boat on end. Everyone thought I was going in. The dive team was getting all there gear ready to come get me and all my friends and family were watching in horror. I landed it. Everyone was extremely relieved when they saw me come down. On impact my ribs hit the side of the boat, the steering wheel, and my knee which caused three cracked ribs. I finished the kilo run and tried again on Sunday. Sunday came I went out and had an ok run. I finished with the speed of 43.8 mph.

My second year came and went with very few big achievements. The only cool accomplishments were that I talked my dad into letting me run A stock and K pro. It was also the last year I could run J stock. Not that I was really running it anyways. I only ran when they needed a third person, which was quite a bit. I was running about 12 or more heats a day, which translates to 6 or more classes a day. I got a new runabout as well. I got a jackal which Darrell Sorensen built. We went down to Orville CA. to get it, at the stock divisional. Everything was going great at the divisional on Saturday. Until the last heat of the day which was AXS Runabout. I was running my new boat which is now called the Ol’ Red. We had just started the race and going into the first turn when someone crossed in front of me a little to close, and wham I went flying. My boat had hit the wake and the front went up. I was thrown backwards into the water and hit in the head with my own boat. It was a shock; not the crash, but how cold the water was. I’ll try to explain how cold it was. When you’re in a hot place the water is generally going to feel cold. The water was glacier water at this lake. So it was cold.
I was in the water and had been pushed or thrown (not sure which one) away from the boat after it hit me. I checked my self out gave the signal and started swimming to the boat. My cousin Cameron had been next to me on the outside when I flipped and we’re pretty close, so he was really worried about me. I had made it to the boat when I realized they hadn’t black flagged the race. At this point I was in the first turn and the boats still racing were headed right for me. My uncle luckily ran to the barge and told them they needed to flag it because it was a J race and that’s the rules. They black flagged it in time so all of them could go into the pits from where they were. The only one who didn’t was my younger cousin. He drove by slowly to see if I was ok. I gave him a thumbs up and he went back to the pits. We took the boat back and looked at it. It was fine and ready to race the next day.

My third year was the last year I could run K pro. I had got a new hydro (the red and white, Fernell) which was a nice boat, but didn’t fit my racing style. So that spring we bought (the black and flame, Love) a boat from the Hoot family. This boat was pretty fast. I got 2nds in AXS and AS hydro. At the end of the year I went to the Devils Lake Kilos again. It was a beautiful day, perfect weather for a kilo run. I went out and it was a perfect run. I broke the AXS runabout record. My speed was 49.126 MPH.