Farrington top U.S. rider in Quebec pipe
Bellevue's Kaitlyn Farrington, 19, keeps rising on the LG FIS Snowboard World Cup.
The Sun Valley Snowboard Team alumnus qualified first into the finals and ended seventh—the top American—during the halfpipe at Stoneham, Quebec, Canada Feb. 20.
It was Farrington's second top-10 result this season. She has made eight World Cup starts in her three-year international career and has risen steadily in the FIS standings.
Farrington is 15th overall in World Cup halfpipe standings with 990 points, behind leader Shiho Nakashima of Japan (3,320). That's an improvement from her 160 points for 49th place in 2007 and 590 points for 28th place last winter.
Sun Valley Snowboard Team coach Andy Gilbert said, "Kaitlyn is still putting down real solid results and is definitely being considered for the national team next year."
Farrington is the fourth Yank in the halfpipe ranks behind Mount Snow's 25-year-old Kelly Clark (4th, 2,000 points), 22-year-old Hannah Teter (8th, 1,400), and 27-year-old Gretchen Bleiler (14th, 1,100).
She is traveling to Nagano, Japan for the Junior World Championships. Farrington was the silver medalist last season at World Juniors.
Revolution Tour in Oregon
Sun Valley coaches Gilbert and Jacob Tyler took nine riders to the U.S. Snowboarding Revolution Tour at Mt. Hood Meadows, Ore. Feb. 20-22.
The tour is a pipeline for young snowboarders looking to make their way to the national team level. "It was a fact finding mission for us to take these young eighth- and ninth-graders so they could see what it's like," said Gilbert.
Heather Black, Sun Valley alumnus, placed 11th in the Feb. 21 pipe. In her first national-event pipe, Ali Appleton was 14th and added a solid middle-of-the-pack Elite event 16th in the Feb. 22 slopestyle.
Sun Valley's Scott Pike, the second qualifier, finished 12th in halfpipe after a finals fall.
Other local riders at Mt. Hood were Hailey Rheinschild, Josey Bunce, JJ Martin, Ross Bird, Chase Josey, Hayden Burdge and Mal Prior.
Freestylers qualify for Junior Olympics
Thirteen skiers on the Sun Valley Ski Education Freestyle/Freeride team have qualified for the USSA Junior Olympics March 9-16 at Waterville Valley, N.H., head coach Andy Ware reported Monday.
Here is the list of qualifiers:
SVSEF girls: Zana Davey (moguls-dual moguls), Alysha Herich (moguls-dual moguls-aerials-slopestyle-halfpipe), Anita Vorsteveld (halfpipe), Kali Phillips (moguls-dual moguls) and Aunika Phillips (moguls-dual moguls).
Boys: Joey Richardson (moguls-dual moguls), Nathan Moses (moguls), Colter Brehmer (halfpipe-slopestyle), Tai Barrymore (halfpipe-slopestyle), Trace Page (halfpipe), Adam Vorsteveld (halfpipe), Ben Parker (halfpipe) and RJ Bracken (dual moguls).
Busy travel weekend
The Freestyle/Freeride team spread out across the Intermountain west last weekend competing in events at three different ski resorts.
Ben Parker, 13, and Alysha Herich, 12, began the weekend at the Canyons, Utah for the divisional championship slopestyle. Both skied well—Parker (4th-J3 and 8th overall) and Herich (1st-J4, 5th overall).
Colter Brehmer, Trace Page, and Tai Barrymore with coach Ben Verge flew to Copper Mountain, Colo. for their first ever "Pro Event," the U.S. Open halfpipe. Blizzard conditions on Qualifiying Day stymied the group but they skied well.
Saturday and Sunday the mogul team competed at Snowbird, Utah in the divisional championships. The course was a frozen rut race not typical of Snowbird but the mogul team aggressively took on the bumps.
Zana Davey (1st-F1 and 7th duals) had another stellar weekend claiming second overall in girls. Herich (2nd) and Addison Holmes (7th) were among F4 leaders. Herich was women's division champion for combined (moguls-halfpipe-aerials).
The Phillips sisters also skied well—Aunika (2nd-F2 and 3rd overall), Kali (1st-F1 and 5th overall) and Lauren (2nd-FS and 7th overall). Aunika won the duals on Sunday beating her sister Kali in the finals.
SVSEF alum Shane Cordeau dominated the men's side, winning both the singles and duals. Other top Sun Valley skiers were Kurtis Fieguth (4th-MS age group and 5th overall) and Austin Bourret (1st M1/7th overall/5th in duals).
Other SV skiers: Nathan Moses (4th-M2/14th overall), Willy Eagan (7th M2/30th overall), Trevor Norris (3rd-M3/18th overall), Joey Richardson (4th-M3/19th overall), RJ Bracken (6thy-M3/22nd) and Wyatt Wilson (2nd M4/34th).
Nordic kids flock to Lake Creek for fun weekend
The point of last weekend's two-day Western States Youth Ski Festival for Intermountain Division racers from Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Montana was to have a lot of late-season fun on the Lake Creek trail system north of Ketchum.
Still, they were scoring points and keeping track.
And depth, as in contributing 62 young skiers to the 165-racer field, certainly meant a great deal to the host Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation's Junior Nordic ski team when the team scores were tabulated
Sun Valley's kids, with only seven individual winners in the age classes and 25 podium finishers, managed to pull out the team championship in the eight-team field by a 357-point margin over Bozeman, Mt.
Designed specifically for skiers ages 13 and younger, the festival featured a skate race, a classic race, the flying 1km downhill and the Nordic X obstacle course. By far, Sun Valley was strongest in obstacles.
SVSEF Junior Nordic ski team head coach Rick Kapala said, "We had a glorious weekend with glorious blue skies and awesome snow conditions. Many thanks to all the volunteers and sponsors who helped make the event a success."
Adding points from the skate, downhill, classic and obstacle races, Sun Valley's Ella Wolter won the J6 (ages 6-7) class. Maddy Watts and Annika Landis placed 2-3 in standings for J4 girls (10-11).
Sun Valley skiers winning individual races were Wolter (J6 classic), Lily Fitzgerald (J6 obstacle), Luke Dean (J6 skate), Cooper Roquet (J5 skate), Cameron Bingham (J4 obstacle), Landis (J4 obstacle) and Andrew Graves (J3 obstacle).
Other podiums in individual races for Sun Valley were:
Classic: Taylor Koth, Watts, Landis and Stephen Pfeiffer. Downhill: Wolter, Danny Graves, Trenor Gould and Watts. Obstacle: Luke Dean, Caroline Corker, Devon Brown, Reilly Neel, Carter Ros, Luke Verst and Katie Feldman.
Local combined placings and team results follow:
Team standings: 1—Sun Valley 2020. 2—Bozeman 1663. 3—Tuna SLNST (Utah Nordic Alliance) 1435. 4—McCall 1392. 5—Park City (Utah) 822. 6—Glacier (Mt.) 682. 7—Jackson Hole (Wyo.) 655. 8—Bogus Basin 605.
J3 girls (12-13): 4—Katie Feldman. 7—Haley Montgomery. 9—Kailey Wilt. 10—Elana King-Nakaoka. 14—Montana Tucker. 21—Cheyanne Stopol. 23—Tara Bingham. 27—Sarah Williams. 30—Syringa Hansen.
J3 boys: 5—Andrew Graves. 6—Stephen Pfeiffer. 10—Luke Verst. 14—Drew Morse. 15—Jake Adicoff. 18—Nate Nasvik. 20—Eron Bates. 21—Bobby Corker.
J4 girls (10-11): 2—Maddy Watts. 3—Annika Landis. 10—Sarah Verst. 17—Emily Siegel. 20—Chloe Evans. 21—Jamie Graninger. 22—Victoria Castellano.
J4 boys: 4—Danny Graves. 6—Cameron Bingham. 7—Carter Ros. 11—Reilly Neel. 12—Trenor Gould. 15—Ben Brunelle. 19—Lukas DeWolfe. 21—Alex Feldman. 26—Jacob Truxal. 28—Peter Wolter. 30—Xavier Haemmerle. 32—Keegan Lupton. 33—Jack Dwyer. 34—Mathew Minford.
J5 girls (8-9): 5—Lilly Brunelle. 6—Devon Brown. 9—Sophia Coplin. 11—Sarah Truxal. 13—Leah Thayer. 14—Emily Thayer. 15—Grace Evans.
J5 boys: 4—Cooper Roquet. 5—Taylor Koth. 7—Ike Buxton. 8—Leo Corrales. 9—Logan Wilkins-Jones. 12—Landon Nurge. 13—Charlie Stumph. 14—Zach Olenick. 16—Joe Hall. 18—Milo Ryason.
J6 girls (6-7): 1—Ella Wolter. 4—Lily Fitzgerald. 5—Caroline Corker. 6—Eva Grover. 7—Sofia Kinney. 8—Payton Bacca.
J6 boys: 3—Luke Dean.
Palmer takes J3 golds in Brundage SGs
Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation alpine ski racer Teagen Palmer earned a pair of first-place finishes in the J3 (ages 13-14) class Friday and Saturday in Intermountain Division J1-J3 super giant slaloms at Brundage Mountain.
Palmer was fourth and fifth overall in the two SGs, while Hailey Ski Team J2 (ages 15-16) racer Sierra Fox captured a pair of silver medals in her class, and two third places overall. J3 Nicole Roos of Sun Valley put up a silver medal Friday, in sixth.
Claiming podiums among boys were Hailey's Miles Sweek with J2 third place Friday and Sun Valley's Kipling Weisel with J3 second place on the 36-gate Sidewinder/Alpine course near McCall.
There were 41 SVSEF and HST racers in the field of 119 boys and 82 girls from Utah, Wyoming and Idaho at Brundage Mountain. Top SG placings for local Wood River kids:
J3 (13-14) girls: 1—Teagen Palmer. 2—Nicole Roos. 5—Cate Fairley. 34—Natalie Bunting. 37—Corrine Smith. 38—Sofia DeWolfe. 50—Marlow Mizer.
J3 boys: 2—Kipling Weisel. 9—KJ Savaria. 21—Cole Caulkins and Ben Kanellitsas. 22—Taylor Adler and Christopher Nalen. 33—Colin Waycott. 42—Zack Freeman. 46—Michael Weaver. 47—Logan Shipley. 49—Alexandre Bridgeman. 53—Lane Coulthard. 54—Rocket Stickney.
J2 (15-16) girls: 2—Sierra Fox. 5—Nina Hirner. 16—Natalie Vorsteveld. 19—Reta Flynt.
J2 boys: 3—Miles Sweek. 11—Ryan Foster. 14—Harlan Collins. 17—Tyler Davis. 18—Tanner Dirstine. 22—Tim Kanellitsas. 25—Hunter Weaver. 27—Dylan Carroll. 30—Jordan Levin. 34—Gardner Cord.
J1 (17-18) girls: 3—Bailey Ireland. 6—Karlee Stagg. 8—Camille Rodriguez-Parravicini.
J1 boys: 7—Scott Smith and Willie Adicoff. 10—Jordan Smith. 12—Gregory Roos.
