Barrymore keeps halfpipe title at Waterville
Beautiful spring weather and then awful New England conditions rained on competitors in the 2010 Junior Olympics freestyle finals March 12-14 at Waterville Valley, N.H.
Sun Valley's Tai Barrymore, 18, successfully defended his Junior National halfpipe title to become the first back-to-back pipe winner from Sun Valley. He earned a spot in Junior World Championships at New Zealand later this year.
Hannah Haupt, ranked #1 in the country for women's halfpipe, followed up Barrymore's performance with her best performance ever. She captured the silver medal in the pipe.
"We qualified five athletes into the halfpipe finals at Junior Olympics," said Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation freestyle director Andy Ware, who accompanied Sun Valley freestylers to New England. "Sun Valley skiers have won the Junior Olympic men's halfpipe three of the last four years.
Besides Barrymore and Haupt, competitors were Zana Davey, Renee Shapiro, Joey Richardson, Trevor Norris, Nathan Moses and former Sun Valley racer Austin Bourret.
Moses 34th/16th M2, Davey 8th/3rd F2 and Shapiro 17th/2nd F2 competed in pipe. Barrymore and Moses raced in slopestyle as well. Tai finished 22nd overall and 9th M1. Nathan crashed in qualifying and didn't make the SS finals.
Ware said the weather began to deteriorate as the week went on. Davey and Haupt qualified for the mogul finals. Zana finished 15th overall and 5th F2—the highest placing Intermountain Division female. Hannah finished 19th overall 7th F2 and was the second highest Intermountain skier.
Norris was the only Sun Valley skier to finish in the men's competition—32nd overall and 4th M3. He was the third highest Intermountain skier. Bourret was 25th and the 12th M1.
The dual mogul event was scheduled for Sunday but the weather had become so bad that event coordinators had to cancel the duals completely.
Ware said, "Our coaches did an excellent job preparing our athletes for this trip. The athletes worked hard and gave 100%. We're still young with many more opportunities to compete at the national level".
Next event for the SVSEF freestyle team is the URTUR-FIS Freestyle Nor-Am halfpipe finals March 18-21 at Boreal, Ca. followed by the U.S. Freestyle National Championships at Squaw Valley March 25-28.
SVSEF athletes who have qualified for nationals:
Zana Davey M/DM; Aunika Phillips M/DM; Hannah Haupt M/DM; Kali Phillips M; Tai Barrymore HP; Colter Brehmer HP; Ben Parker HP; Kurtis Fieguth M/DM; and Austin Bourret M/DM.
J3 Olympics ready at Mt. Bachelor
The Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation will be represented by eight athletes at the USSA Alpine Junior 3 Olympics at Mount Bachelor, Oregon, March 18-21.
Based on their results at Junior Olympic qualifying races, KJ Savaria, Kipling Weisel, Ben Kanellitsas, Cole Caulkins, Will Harder, Taylor Adler, Marlow Mizer and Jordan Fitzgerald will compete as part of the 47-skier Intermountain team from Idaho, Utah and Wyoming.
The TD Bank Junior 3 Western Region Olympics officially open on Friday, March 19 at Mt. Bachelor, beginning with men's and women's super giant slalom. SG training is Thursday. Giant slalom is Saturday and slalom takes place Sunday.
The series features the best 13-14-year-old skiers in the Western U.S. in super G, giant slalom and slalom races. The 10-coach Intermountain staff is headed by Park City's Ben Sinclair and includes Scott McGrew of the SVSEF.
McGrew said, "I have some kids who could do phenomenally well and have high expectations for this group."
McGrew said at the conclusion of the J3 event, a Western states team will be named with four boys and four girls. They will compete in an international championship series at Whistler, B.C., in April.
Mini World Cup speed races on Baldy
Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation "C" Home alpine ski teamers worked on their speed Saturday and Sunday during Mini World Cup super giant slaloms and downhills.
Results follow by race, best-of-two runs counting for points:
Boys' super giant slalom: 1—Matteo Jorgenson 34.97. 2—Kobe Tamura 35.03. 3—Jake Blackburn 35.82. 4—Wyatt Minor 36.56. 5—Will Griffith 36.72. 6—Tobias Verheijen 37.03. 7—Ethan Daves 37.22. 8—Noah Leininger 37.56. 9—Charlie Stumph 37.97. 10—Patrick Welsh 38.78. 11—Logan Jones-Wilkins 431.6.
Girls' super giant slalom: 1—Katelyn Rathfon 36.16. 2—Sage Rheinschild 36.28. 3—Pilar Pennell 36.46. 4—Hallie MacPherson 37.15. 5—Royce Rheinschild 38.03. 6—Molly Milgard 38.75. 7—Lane Letourneau 39.66. 7—Maddie Ferris 39.66. 9—Bailey Holter 40.31. 10—Remy Vernoy 42.15. 11—Sylvia Cogen 42.97. 12—Giselle Harmon 43.53. 13—Isabella Welsh 43.72. 14—Emily Watts 44.78. 15—McKinna Arial 45.19. 16—Katie Peters 50.71.
Boys' downhill: 1—Kobe Tamura 32.37. 2—Matteo Jorgenson 32.94. 3—Wyatt Minor 33.82. 4—Noah Leininger 33.84. 5—Jake Blackburn 33.93. 6—Tobias Verheijen 34.14. 7—Will Griffith 34.25. 8—Charlie Stumph 34.41. 9—Ethan Daves 34.72. 10—Logan Jones-Wilkins 36.66. 11—Patrick Welsh 38.28.
Girls' downhill: 1—Katelyn Rathfon 33.85. 2—Sage Rheinschild 34.10. 3—Hallie MacPherson 34.28. 4—Lane Letourneau 34.32. 5—Molly Milgard 34.34. 6—Pilar Pennell 34.41. 7—Royce Rheinschild 35.69. 8—Maddie Ferris 35.78. 9—Giselle Harmon 36.95. 10—Bailey Holter 36.96. 11—Remy Vernoy 37.19. 12—Isabella Welsh 38.16. 13—Sylvia Cogen 38.87. 14—Emily Watts 39.97. 15—Katie Peters 40.31.
