He will be Cardinal red this fall, but Ketchum's Wyatt Bunce was solid gold last Tuesday—winning men's halfpipe during the USASA National Snowboard Championships at Copper Mountain, Colo.
Competing in the Men's Jams division (18-22), the Stanford-bound Bunce scored 92 points to scale the podium, and to make his comeback from a torn ACL complete.
"He could barely get out of the pipe earlier this season," SVSEF Snowboard Director Andy Gilbert said. "But he just kept after it and he won in some really adverse conditions. It was snowing sideways and there was about a foot of slush in the bottom of the pipe. He linked two 540s and threw a 740 to finish."
Bunce, 18, a rider with the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation team since he was eight, is a senior at The Community School in Sun Valley. He smoked the rest of his 11-rider class in the Group 6 A flight.
Gilbert said, "Wyatt's signature amplitude and smooth 5-5-7 combo put him head and shoulders above the rest of the field—scoring a 92.00 and pulling in his first national title. What a great way to finish your career with the SVSEF!"
There were 1,513 competitors in last week's nationals, which took place over six days April 4-9. Other highlights of the week included:
Competing in one of the toughest fields of nationals, Ali Appleton, 16, finished 10th in Junior Women's 16-17) slopestyle.
Gilbert said, "The level of riding was pretty amazing considering girls were throwing 540 combos and even a rodeo flip. Ali kept things simple and landed a nice run that included a method over the first big jump and two nice straight airs on the medium line and stomped rail section."
Unfortunately Appleton broke her wrist training for halfpipe the day before a nationals event in which she could have been very successful, the coaching staff felt.
Dash Stethem, 16, posted a personal-best 29th in Junior Men's (16-17) halfpipe—not bad for a kid who only started riding pipe this season, according to Gilbert. "We are expecting good things from Dash in the future," the coach added.
Open Class contenders
SVSEF teammates Mal Prior and Chase Josey competed in the tough Men's Open class halfpipe April 7. Prior, 17, was fifth of 32 riders with a score of 76.7 and Josey placed 15th in the "Big Show" at nationals.
Gilbert said, "Mal dropped in for his first run and his first hit set the tone for the rest of it with the biggest air of the day he made everyone take notice. After the scores came in Mal was sitting in first!
"With more in his bag Mal upped the ante taking his run from 7-7-9 to 7-9-9 with the same amplitude as before. This run landed him in second place and punched his ticket to his first Open Class final!
"Chase talked things over with coach Jacob Tyler and it was decided that a clean overall run was more important than just one big trick. Chase stomped the 7-7-crippler combo, landing him just outside the final in 15th place."
In slopestyle Thursday, Josey, 15, had an excellent 20th place finish.
Gilbert said, "Chase took to the course with great confidence. He had a little bobble on his first run and needed to step up his second if he wanted to make finals. After coming back to the top and talking with me about trick selection it was decided that he would need a cab 540, backside 720 and a backside 900 to make finals. Chase dropped in and stuck the run and cleaned the bottom section of rails as well. He was only four spots from making the final."
Josey was competing in his first Open Class national event, Gilbert said. "The future looks bright for Chase," said Gilbert.
Bria Gillespie, 16, put down another promising result when she finished 12th Friday in the Junior Women's (16-17) Team B halfpipe. She had two solid runs capped off with frontside 360s.
Hailey Rheinschild in Youth Women (14-15) had some major problems with her first run going down hard on her first hit. She made an adjustment to her run in order to showcase her strong point, amplitude. She mixed up grabs and liked a frontside 360 to a cab 360.
The run scored well against some girl with very technical skills and landed Rheinschild in fifth place.
Gilbert summed up, "So after it was all said and done we had five of seven kids at nationals in the top 10, including a national champion and an Open Class finalist. Also, we had a personal best and a young rider stepping up and being competitive in a very strong field. Things are looking pretty good right now!"
