Riders get on board at Park City
A, B and C members of the Sun Valley Snowboard Team had their tricks down to the letter in USASA Intermountain events at Park City, Utah over the weekend of Feb. 8-10.
Competition opened with good old-fashioned giant slalom and slalom Friday, followed by a slopestyle Saturday and superpipe Sunday.
Chase Josey won both technical events, sweeping the Breaker Boys (12-13) class. Ryan Roemer was second in slalom. Gavin Admire was a two-time champ in GS/SL for Youth Men (14-15). Josie Bunce stood on top of the podium in slopestyle for Youth Women.
Slopestyle/superpipe results
Breaker Girls (12-13): Taylor Figge 2/4; Hailey Rheinschild 3/3; Noe Garing 4/5.
Breaker Boys (12-13): Chase Josey 4/2; Josh Morell 8/10; Ryan Roemer 9/7; Jesse Forgeon 16/11; Michael Nero 19/14; Andy Mallea 20/12; Nathan Kniffen 22/13.
Youth Women (14-15): Josie Bunce 1/4: Ali Appleton 4/2; Bria Gillespie 5/5; Kathryn Caminiti 7/6.
Youth Men (14-15): Mal Prior 5/2; Cody Swenke 6/11; Ross Bird 7/3; Cameron Murphy 9/13; Sam Strong 10/9; Hayden Burdge 12/8; Reed Burdge 15/6; Gavin Admire 18/10.
Junior Men (16-17): Scott Fairfax 2/4; Wyatt Bunce 4/3; John Martin 9/5; Cary Reinemann 108/; Quinn Baser 11/2; Rusty Williams 13/7.
Local bumpers unlock on World Cup course
South was the direction for the Sun Valley freestyle team at the Deer Valley Mogul Challenge, Feb. 7-9 in Utah.
Former Sun Valley skier Nic Hanscom, now representing Park City, was the men's overall champion in Saturday's single moguls. Broc Sheue, Justin Peterson and Kurtis Fieguth finished 6-7-8 in the Men's Senior division.
Austin Moses picked up the win in M2, followed by teammate Austin Bourret in 2nd and William Eagan 8th. In M3, the lineup was Trevor Brand 7th, Conner Braatz 8th, Nathan Moses 10th, Adam Vorsteveld 11th and Joey Richardson 13th. Top M4s were Wyatt Wilson 6th, Ben Parker 11th and Colton Braatz 13th.
Zana Davey bumped her was to second place in the F3 class and 12th overall. Aunika Phillips and Hannah Haupt were 3-4 in F3. Top F2 skiers were Kali Phillips 4th and Anita Vorsteveld 7th. Lauren Phillips was 7th in the F1 class.
Champion was the site of the Deer Valley mogul course. The run was the venue for the 2002 Olympics and the site of a World Cup event last week. "It's 250 meters long and just gnarly," coach John Zuck said. "Kids would get to the bottom of the course and just fall over."
In Sunday's single mogul run, Wilson won M4s, Parker was 10th and Braatz 11th. Sun Valley's Brand, Braatz, Richardson, Vorsteveld and Moses covered 7-11 in M3s.
Bourret was on the podium with 2nd in M2, with Moses 5th and Eagan 6th. Fieguth topped MS class with Hanscom 3rd. Trace Page was 5th M1. Top F3 competitors were A. Phillips 3rd, Davey 4th and Haupt 6th. K. Phillips and L. Phillips were 4th in their respective classes.
Davey finished fourth overall in women's duals Sunday. Hanscom was the men's winner and Fieguth was third. Wilson won two duals. "For a M4 to step up and win in duals is amazing," Zuck said.
Top performers on a busy day of slopestyle and aerials Friday were Bourret with a pair of class wins in aerials and 3rd slopestyle. Anita Vorsteveld was 1st and 2nd in aerials and 3rd in slope. Eagan (AE) and Haupt (SL) collected bronze medals.
Grand Prix riders at Tamarack
Sun Valley's Graham Watanabe rode to third place in Sunday's men's snowboardcross (SBX) competition that was a highlight of the Chevy U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix at snowy Tamarack Resort south of McCall.
Olympic champion Seth Wescott of Maine and world champion Lindsey Jacobellis of Vermont swept Sunday's SBX—the only SBX stop on the Chevy Grand Prix this winter.
Another highlight of the big Tamarack weekend was Saturday's halfpipe. Tamarack features one of the premiere superpipes in the country. The pipe, named Homestead, features 22-foot walls, which will be the Olympic standard for the 2010 Vancouver Games.
Kaitlyn Farrington, 18, of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation was the only rider of five locals to advance to the halfpipe finals. She went through as the third qualifier, less than three points behind leader and eventual champion Kelly Clark of West Dover, Vt., the 2002 Olympic gold medalist.
Farrington ended up in eighth place overall. It was her third top-10 finish this season in a Level 2 event. Heather Black rode to 16th.
The men's halfpipe field had the challenge of trying to make it to the round of 16 in 3-4 inches of fresh snow coupled with limited visibility.
U.S. Snowboarding's Louie Vito (Sandy, Utah) was the second qualifier Friday, coming back to win big on Saturday.
Scott Pike rode to 20th overall, only three places behind U.S. Snowboarding's Tommy Czeschin, the overall Grand Prix champion in 2007. Sun Valley alum Jeremy Black was 26th, Kenny Ballou 29th and Austen Butler 34th of 36 riders.
"I think our kids rode really well," Sun Valley coach Andy Gilbert said. "The run Kenny had going would have put him in the finals, but he fell. He still finished 29th overall with a fall, which is great."
NBC will broadcast the event at 1:30 p.m. MST on Saturday, Feb. 16.
Post nails Big Mountain win at Telluride
Sun Valley's Griffin Post proved to be a master of the steep and deep, winning the third annual Subaru Telluride Freeskiing Open, Feb. 9.
In the shadow of Telluride's Palmyra Peak, Post was the man to beat from the beginning. He captured first place on the opening and closing days of the competition, which featured top-flight skiers from around the world.
Post won with 107 points, a 5.5-point margin over second place. "I'm pumped," he said. "To stay in first is just—well, I'm glad I didn't blow it."
Post, who is currently living in Sandy, Utah, was the runner-up at Telluride last year, and finished fourth overall in the U.S. Freeskiing Series.
The next stop on the tour is Squaw Valley, Feb. 13-16.
Blue skis and smiling faces at Quigley
The Papoose Club's third annual Quigley Cup Nordic ski race attracted 56 racers who showed great spirit and smiling faces Sunday in Hailey. Participants each received a ski cap and piggy banks with ribbons and awards going to the top racers in classic and skate.
Results by class:
Ages 12-13, skate girls: 1—Hailey Montgomery 7:03. 2—Brooke Lawrence 8:11. Skate boys: 1—Zach Lindahl 6:05. 2—Stephen Pfeiffer 6:22. 3—Andrew Graves 7:28.
Ages 10-11, skate girls: 1—Annika Landis 4:53. 2—Payton McCune 5:24. 3—Grace Gorham 5:31. 4—Bailey Cleven 5:42. 5—Maddy Watts 5:49. Skate boys: 1—Danny Graves 4:42. 2—Nathan Nasvik 4:52. 3—Ben Brunelle 5:14. 4—Griffin Curtis 5:36.
Ages 8-9, classic girls: 1—Annabelle Webster 8:15. Skate girls: 1—Megan Downey 5:27. 2—Emily Siegel 5:47. 3—Alina Svidgal 5:56. 4—Emily Watts 7:13. 5—Sophie Nasvik 7:32. 6—Sophia Copplin 7:35. Skate boys: 1—Carter Ross 5:00. 2—Zach Williams 5:04. 3—Jack Dwyer 5:25. 4—Peter Walter 5:34. 5—Taylor Koth 5:35. 6—Mathew Minford 5:43. 7—Luke DeWolfe 5:44. 8—Jacob Truxal 5:48. 9—Cooper Roquet 6:27. 10—Kegan Lipton 6:43. 11—Jorgen Lawrence 7:26. 12—Connor Lohrke 7:51. 13—Logan Jones-Wilkins 8:59.
Ages 6-7, classic girls: 1—Bryn Downey 5:12. 2—Ellie Gorham 6:01. 3—Eveline Svidgal 6:19. Skate girls: 1—Lilly Brunelle 4:08. 2—Sarah Truxal 4:29. 3—Kaia Jensen 4:37. 4—Kasey Johnson 4:48. 5—Evi Johnson 5:31. Classic boys: 1—Zachary Olenick 5:45. 2—Sam Lasky 6:10.
Ages 4-5, classic girls: 1—Eva Grover 6:56. 2—Sage Curtis 7:38. 3—Annika Thompson 11:22. 4—Willa Lasky 11:24. Skate girls: 1—Anja Jensen 5:15. Classic boys: 1—William DeWolfe 8:23. 2—Jake Gorham 9:08. 3—Owen Miller 10:15.
Ages 3-and-under, girls: 1—Anja Grover 2:30. 2—Keyle Potts 6:19. Boys: 1—Max Svigdal 5:11.
