Sun Valley B and C team riders participated in the King of the Mountain Snowboard Series in Park City, Utah.
The competition, also part of the Utah Winter Games, was one of the biggest in the Intermountain Snowboard Series with 116 competitors for slopestyle and superpipe on Saturday and Sunday.
Sun Valley coach Jon French said, "I think our team did really well. It's hard to compete with the Park City kids in slopestyle because they're hitting those jumps every day, but we're catching up in the pipe."
One down note was that Patrick Hurley broke his hand during slopestyle—and on his 18th birthday no less.
"That was a bummer because he couldn't compete in the superpipe the next day and that's what he was there for. He definitely would have won his class," French said. Results:
Slopestyle
Menehune girls (10-11): 2—Taylor Figge.
Menehune boys (10-11): 2—Chase Josey. 3—Ryan Roemer.
Breaker girls (12-13): 2—Hailey Rheinschild. 4—Josie Bunce. 5—Bria Gillespie. 6—Ali Appleton.
Breaker boys: 8—Reed Burge. 9—Hayden Burge. 10—Cody Swenke. 11-Sam Strong.
Youth men (14-15): 10—Wyatt Bunce. 11—Mal Prior. 13—Bill Rheinschild. 15—Brian Drussel. 18—Cary Reinemann. 19—Rusty Williams. 20—Zachary Bjorkman. 21—Ross Bird.
Junior men (16-17): 12—Patrick Hurley. 13—Peter Driscoll.
Superpipe
Menehune boys: 1—Ryan Roemer. 4—Chase Josey.
Menhune girls: 2—Taylor Figge.
Breaker girls: 3—Josie Bunce. 4—Ali Appleton. 5—Bria Gillespie. 6—Hailey Rheinschild.
Breaker boys: 6—Sam Strong. 7—Reed Burge. 10—Hayden Burge. 11—Cody Swenke.
Youth men: 2—Wyatt Bunce. 4—Brian Drussel. 5—Mal Prior. 7—Cary Reinemann. 10—Zachary Bjorkman. 11—Ross Bird. 14—Bill Rheinschild. 17—Rusty Williams.
Junior men: 5—Peter Driscoll.
Farrington mines silver at Copper Mountain
Kids barely old enough to be behind the wheel were driving the competition at the Chevrolet Revolution Tour at Copper Mountain, Colorado, Jan. 26-28.
Kaitlyn Farrington, 17, of the Sun Valley Snowboard Team showed second in the women's slopestyle and was sixth in halfpipe—the #1 women's qualifier.
"Basically Kaitlyn was the girl to beat all weekend long," coach Andy Gilbert said.
He added, "Every girl was put on notice. Kaitlyn is basically doing tricks that no other girl is doing."
Gilbert said that the competition format was different at the Revolution Tour, which is a qualifier for the Junior World Championships, U.S. Open and U.S. Nationals.
"They break it into heats and the top six women advance to a two-run final. It's a long day for the women," he said.
Kenny Ballou pulled down eighth place in men's halfpipe.
"This was Kenny's first elite-level competition and this is against kids who have been to the junior world championships and made the finals at Grand Prix events. Kenny worked his tail off last week to add more technical elements to his run. He had the biggest air of the day and making the finals was just a huge feather in his cap," Gilbert related.
Another Sun Valley mainstay, Spencer Cordovano, finished fifth in the men's bordercross. Nick Shutz also competed in the event.
In slopestyle, Jeremy Black was 53rd, Ballou 57th and Austen Butler 61st. Butler scratched the remaining events because of a knee injury.
