Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Bumps go smoothly on Baldy’s Race Arena

Freestyle skiers pack Sun Valley’s slopes


Taking a break during last weekend’s Sun Valley Freestyle Spectacular are SVSEF racers, from left, River Curtis, Renee Shapiro, Hannah Haupt and Claire Siderman. Photo by Willy Cook

Andy Ware was tuckered out Monday, weary like a mogul skier with burning legs at the bottom of a challenging run.

The Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Freestyle Team director had just finished five full days as Chief of Competition of the Sun Valley Freestyle Spectacular on Baldy and Dollar Mountain.

It was a great event, with over 170 entries from Idaho, Oregon, Montana, California and Washington—including 120 alone in Saturday's single moguls contest on Baldy's Race Arena run. In fact, Ware said it was "the largest freestyle event ever held in Sun Valley."

Speaking of the Race Arena bumps course, it had been upgraded in difficulty to "more of a Black Diamond course, World Cup-style," Ware said, getting the young racers ready to compete on a World Cup course Feb. 10-11 at Deer Valley, Utah.

Ware added, "And none of it would be possible without the support of Sun Valley Company, which went to great lengths to make outstanding venues, and also to parent volunteers. It truly takes an army. Outside of the Junior Olympics, it was one of the largest competitions in the country."

Capping it off was Sunday's dual mogul final heats that showcased the talents of many U.S. Ski Team hopefuls.

In the men's final, 18-year-old Gabriel Cohen of Park City earned first place over former SVSEF bump skier Austin Bourret, 20, a Boise State University freshman training with the Park City Freestylers. Placing fourth of 42 in the eliminations was SVSEF M1 (ages 17-18) prospect RJ Bracken.

Wasatch (Utah) Freestyle Team F1 Nikki Bojack won the women's duals final over F1 teammate Skye Mooney after former SVSEF racer Aunika Phillips of Park City led the way in the qualifying.

Placing third among 24 in the eliminations was Sun Valley F3 (13-14) Renee Shapiro, who won four of her five heats—losing only to eventual champ Bojack. It was a nice comeback, since Shapiro tore her ACL just a year ago.

The 15 SVSEF class winners were, in halfpipe, Timothy Gould, Trevor Hattabaugh, Perry Boyle, Renee Shapiro, Devon Brown and Alex Diehl; in moguls were Wyatt Wilson, Claire Siderman, Cooper Roquet, Hunter Diehl and Addison Rafford; and in slopestyle were Parker Nance, Devon Brown, Luke Rizzo, Blake Beckwith and Addie Shandro.

In addition, seven SVSEF kids finished all five events over the four days. They were Brody Buchwalter, Parker Nance, Jamie Rollerson, Alex Lafleur, Blake Harmon, Alvaro Jiraldo and Giselle Harmon.

Here are SVSEF class placings for its 50 participants by day— Friday's slopestyle (SS), Thursday's halfpipe (HP) then Saturday's single moguls (M) and Sunday's dual moguls (DM) qualifying runs:

M1 (ages 17-18) boys: Timothy Gould 4-SS, 1-HP, 1-HP; Nathan Moses 5-SS; and RJ Bracken 5-M, 2-DM.

M2 (15-16) boys: Ben Parker 5-SS, 4-HP, 7-HP; Trevor Hattabaugh 7-SS, 1-HP, 1-HP; Hayes Gilman 13-SS, 6-HP, 4-HP; Wyatt Wilson 1-M, 3-DM; and River Curtis 3-M, 5-DM.

F2 girls: Morgan Shaver 2-M, 2-DM; Alysha Herich 5-M, 5-DM; and Marbella Barrymore 7-M.

M3 (13-14) boys: Brody Buchwalter 5-SS, 5-HP, 3-HP, 5-M, 2-DM; Perry Boyle 6-SS, 1-HP, 5-HP; Zac Maricich-Siele 3-M; and Jack Rizzo 4-M, 10-DM.

F3 girls: Renee Shapiro 1-HP, 1-HP, 7-M, 2-DM; Claire Siderman 1-M, 1-DM; and Parker Nance 1-SS, 2-HP, 2-HP, 10-M, 8-DM.

M4 (11-12) boys: Jamie Rollerson 3-SS, 3-HP, 7-HP, 12-M, 5-DM; Cooper Roquet 1-M; Eli Roberts 4-SS, 6-HP, 3-HP, 14-M; Alex Lafleur 5-SS, 8-HP, 8-HP, 8-M, 3-DM; Blake Harmon 6-SS, 2-HP, 5-HP, 9-M, 17-DM; Alvaro Jiraldo 11-SS, 4-HP, 2-HP, 10-M, 16-DM; Wilson Dunn 14-DM; Ian Thomas 7-HP, 6-HP; Wilder Curtis 5-M; William Griffith 9-DM; and Lucas Beste (Ind.) 6-DM.

F4 girls: Devon Brown 1-SS, 1-HP, 1-HP, 4-M; and Evathea Drougas 7-M.

M5 (9-10) boys: Luke Rizzo 1-SS, 4-M; Christopher Pedersen 2-SS, 2-HP, 3-HP; Alex Diehl 1-HP, 1-HP; Jack Horowitz 3-HP, 2-HP; Hunter Diehl 1-M, 1-DM; Jack Wojcik 7-M; Logan Wojcik 9-M; Benjamin Anderson 10-M; Henry Cherp 11-M; and Mikel Sanchez-duPont 12-M.

F5 girls: Giselle Harmon 3-SS, 4-HP, 4-HP, 3-M, 2-DM; Addison Rafford 1-M; Rainey Wilson 2-M; Eliza Marks 4-M; and Katie Markthaler 5-M.

M6 (7-8) boys: Blake Beckwith 1-SS, 1-M; Erik Babcock 2-SS; and Joe Markthaler 2-M.

F6 girls: Addie Shandro 1-SS; and Frances Cherp 45-M.




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