Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Riders slam the hammer at Tahoe

SV snowboarders make off with national titles


By JODY ZARKOS
Express Staff Writer

Sun Valley?s Chase Josey gets a smooch from professional snowboarder Molly Aguirre on the podium at nationals.

Thanks to Sun Valley snowboarder Ryan Roemer, the words "ride it like you stole it" became the catch phrase for local riders competing at the USASA National Championships at Tahoe's Northstar Resort, March 31-April 7.

Roemer's fellow riders made off with so much loot they could have been suspects.

"We'd laugh and say it before the hammer would drop," coach Chatham Baker said.

Wielding one of the biggest hammers at Tahoe was 11-year-old Chase Josey.

A sixth grader at Wood River Middle School, Josey competed in all five Menehune Boys' (10-11) events. He won slalom, finished second in halfpipe and slopestyle, third in giant slalom and seventh in boardercross during nationals.

Josey parlayed his performances into first place in the Overall Combined Ranking (alpine/freestyle), first place in the Triple Combined Ranking (apine/freestyle/boardercross), and Alpine Rankings and second in the Overall Freestyle.

"There was not a coach or rider in the country that did not sit up and take notice at the things Chase and Ryan were doing. They were doing some amazing things, effortlessly," Baker said.

Also taking notice was professional snowboarder Molly Aguirre, who Chase coaxed into giving him victory kisses when he was on the podium.

"A year from now, Chase probably won't remember winning the overall, but he will definitely remember getting kissed by Molly Aguirre," Baker said.

Fellow Menehune racer Roemer was 21st overall in freestyle with a fifth in boardercross. He was 20th in halfpipe and 40th slopestyle.

Coach Baker said if not for sitting down in the judged events Roemer would have finished higher with the difficulty of the other tricks he landed.

Junior Men (16-17) is one of the most competitive divisions in snowboarding and Scott Pike showed he is a force to be reckoned with. He won halfpipe and finished 12th in slopestyle to take second in the Overall Freestyle Rankings.

Sun Valley's Scott Fairfax (19-HP/35-SS) was 16th overall.

"The group that Pike won is really the next wave. The announcer alluded to the fact Pike is ready to move on to bigger and better things. Scott is super low key, but he sets the bar really, really high," Sun Valley Snowboard Director Andy Gilbert said.

Junior Men's rider Peter Driscoll had "one of the best trips of his life" the coach said.

"He got in there and did really well," Gilbert said. "The B Team coaches did a great job getting him ready."

Driscoll rode to 13th in giant slalom and 20th in slalom to finish 16th in the Overall Alpine Rankings.

17-year-old Kaitlyn Farrington was fifth in halfpipe and 13th in slopestyle to place fifth in Overall Freestyle Rankings for Open Class Women. Gilbert said Farrington served notice by being the only woman pulling off inverted air in the pipe.

"Kaitlyn doing a McTwist (a front flip with a 180) put all the girls in the country on notice that they are going to have to work extra hard this summer. You could hear the gasps of the girls at the top of the pipe when she did it," Gilbert said.

Heather Black pulled down a pair of top 10 finishes to garner sixth place in the Junior Women's Overall Freestyle. Black was fifth in slopestyle and eighth in pipe.

Jeremy Black (Open Class Men) was 13th overall in the Overall Freestyle Rankings. Gilbert said he turned in the ride of his life in an 11th place halfpipe finish.

In Thursday's Youth Men's halfpipe, Mal Prior was 8th, Wyatt Bunce 15th and Ross Bird 19th for Sun Valley.

Currently a freshman at Sierra Nevada College, Sun Valley alum Spencer Cordovano won the Overall Combined Ranking in the Open Class and was third in the Triple Combined and Alpine Rankings. His best finish was a fourth slalom. He was fifth in giant slalom.

Gilbert said he is very optimistic about the program in the coming years.

"I am super encouraged and stoked on these up and coming kids," Gilbert said. "Things look really good for us. We had tons of top 10s and top 20s. Our kids weren't doing stock runs. They were increasing the difficulty of their tricks. It was really fun watching them put the hammer down this week."

Check next week's Local Life for a nationals team photo.




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