best of luck with the regionals, i personally see some good decesion making in the accident, and the unfortunate "act of god" which will always be labled by the FAA as pilot error.
PS-
Dont' remember this accident, but those were my old stomping grounds. Did many a x-c to OJC, IXD, and MCI. My first long solo x/c was IXD/SGF/9k4...hehe.