Wednesday, April 9, 2008

On top of it at Copper

Farrington crowned national halfpipe champion


By JODY ZARKOS
Express Staff Writer

SVSEF Snowboard Team coach Andy Gilbert (front row) with his national group at Copper Mountain, Colo. Courtesy photo

Members of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation's snowboard team stepped up on the national stage at the USASA National Championships at Copper Mountain, Colorado, and a couple even managed to take a bow from the podium.

"It was great," SVSEF snowboard director Andy Gilbert said. "How can you not be stoked on taking a group that big and how well they did? Overall I was very impressed."

Sun Valley qualified 21 athletes for the March 29-April 5 national meet. It featured more than 1,600 riders from 35 USASA series or regions around the country. The competition was very challenging.

Among Sun Valley's stars were national halfpipe champion Kaitlyn Farrington, 18, and Junior Women's overall freestyle champion Heather Black, 17, halfpipe bronze medalist.

"The Open Class halfpipe was quite possibly the best I've seen as far as the level of riding," Gilbert said. "Regions are taking things more seriously when it comes to the Open. Scott Pike was one of two guys to throw a 10. And he placed fifth."

Farrington, fresh off a second-place performance in halfpipe at the Junior World Championships in Italy, won the Women's Open Class halfpipe. She scored 80.7 on her second run in a best-of-three final. Valley native Farrington was five points better—a large margin in snowboarding—than runner-up Kelly Marren of Squaw Valley. Farrington also rode to 10th place in slopestyle to finish second in the overall freestyle rankings.

Describing Farrington's winning run, Gilbert said, "Straight air, backside 500, frontside 500, McTwist and frontside 700. Everything was thrown in combination—one trick to the next with no set up. Kaitlyn is riding with a lot of confidence and maturity. It's the end of the season, but she's still hitting her stride."

Gilbert said all the local riders "loved" the halfpipe, designed and built by Frank Wells of Snowpark Technology. The company created the halfpipe and cross courses for the 48Straight events March 14-16 on Baldy in Sun Valley. "It was very similar to our pipe here. The kids were stoked," Gilbert said.

Throughout the season, Heather Black did not have much competition in the Junior Women's (16-17) division at Intermountain events, but it did not hold her back at nationals.

Black won the overall freestyle title with a third in halfpipe and sixth in slopestyle. Those results are all the more impressive considering that Sun Valley riders do not yet have a terrain park to train in.

"Heather added some new spins to her halfpipe run and came in ready to go," Gilbert said.

Promise throughout the ranks

A national champion in the halfpipe last year, Scott Pike bounced back from displacing his front teeth and a concussion on the first day of practice to place fifth in Men's Open at the Copper Mountain contest.

"Scotty blew up on his first two runs, but he threw down a great run on his third heat, which I think is one of the hardest things in sports to do. It's like striking out three times and coming back to bat in the bottom of the ninth," Gilbert said.

Pike knocked one out of the park, scoring a 92.5 on his third run.

Men's Open champion Ben Stewart of New Zealand scored a 99.0 on what Gilbert called "one of the sickest runs I have ever seen. It would have made the finals at a Grand Prix. The judges were scoring really high, and not giving themselves a lot of room to reward great things," Gilbert added.

Like Pike, Kenny Ballou had to make his third run his best and his score of 77.7 was good enough for 12th place out of 16 finalists.

"For all three of our Open riders to make the finals is a big accomplishment," Gilbert remarked.

In the overall freestyle rankings, Pike was 10th and Ballou 15th, after factoring in slopestyle results in which Pike was 36th and Ballou 61st.

Ali Appleton made huge strides in the Youth Women's (14-15) division with a 4th in halfpipe and 25th in slopestyle to place 8th overall. "Ali came on like gangbusters this year. I am sure this is a huge confidence builder for next year," Gilbert said.

Josie Bunce and Bria Gillespie posted solid results with Bunce 16th in slopestyle and 21st in pipe for 17th place in the overall free standings. Gillespie was 20th in halfpipe.

Gilbert said, "Josie and Bria were right where the coaches expected them to be. They are a spin or combo away from breaking into the top 10."

Eight riders meant that Sun Valley was stacked for the Youth and Junior Men's divisions.

Top result in Youth was turned in by Mal Prior, 12th in halfpipe.

"He worked really hard in the two weeks leading up to nationals and his riding showed it," Gilbert said.

Stylish Ross Bird finished 23rd in a field of 80, earning accolades and attention from his coaches.

"Ross' run is such a good representation of what I think snowboarding is supposed to look like. He has spinning combinations in both directions. He can go upside down, has a hand plant and good amplitude on straight airs," Gilbert said.

Quinn Baser was sitting eighth after his first run in the pipe and his coaches talked him into throwing a 900 during his second run.

"It's a benchmark for the Junior Men's division," Gilbert said. "Quinn did a nine on the first hit and was 15 feet out of the pipe. He might have had the biggest air of the day. He didn't land it, but we were pretty stoked he took the risk and tried it. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it just looks awesome."

Baser was 12th in a field of 68 with a 72.3. Hot on his heels was Wyatt Bunce, 14th at 64.7. Scott Fairfax was 19th, John Martin 21st, Cary Reinemann 31st and Rusty Williams 49th.

Factoring in his 46th place in slopestyle, Fairfax climbed to 18th in the overall freestyle rankings. Reinemann was 21st and Williams 32nd in boardercross.

"(Coach) Jon French said it was amazing how they stood out with their overall skills. They never compete in the event, but with riding Baldy all the time, both kids looked really comfortable," Gilbert said.

Peter Driscoll of Ketchum, who attends The Gow School near Buffalo, N.Y, was very consistent in the alpine events. His finishes were 19th in slalom, 20th in giant slalom for 19th in the alpine rankings.

Despite making the step up to the Breaker Boys (12-13) division, Chase Josey nonetheless found himself in the familiar position of first place in the overall combined rankings.

Josey, 13, won Triple Overall (alpine/freestyle/boardercross) and was second in the overall freestyle (halfpipe/slopestyle) and tied for fifth in the overall alpine rankings (giant slalom/slalom). He was the only Sun Valley rider to compete in all five events. With the exception of 17th in boardercross, Josey made the top 10 in all of them.

Josey scored 90.7 to finish 5th in halfpipe. He was 6th in both alpine events and 8th in slopestyle.

Gilbert explained, "It's akin to being a first-year J3 for Chase. The first year most kids come into ski racing and spend a year acclimating to a different situation where the older kids in that group are pretty big and strong. Fifth in pipe is nothing to scoff at. It was a solid result against some really good kids."

Ryan Roemer made the finals in boardercross, finishing 6th overall.

"The coaches had nothing but good things to say about his line selections. He got tangled up in the finals or could have finished higher," said Gilbert.

He thanked his hard-working coaches A.J. Grabos, Jon French, Jacob Tyler, Nate Galpin and Josh Keefer for a great season.

Other results: In Breaker Girls, Haley Rheinschild was 17th slopestyle and 23rd halfpipe. Britton Stevenson and Gavin Admire also qualified for nationals from Sun Valley but didn't compete.




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