River Radamus of Ski and Snowboard Club Vail collected three firsts and a second last weekend at the J5 finale at Powderhorn. .
March 18, 2009 — The J5 Finale at Powderhorn ski area in far western Colorado last weekend brought more than 130 young athletes ages 8 through 10 from all over the Rocky Mountain division together for a championship event in Giant Slalom and Slalom.
Ski and Snowboard Club Vail's J5 assistant coach Barclay Rabin commented, “The level of competition at this event brought out the best in each of our athletes."
SSCV’s young racers competed against the best J5s in the division, including kids from New Mexico and Minnesota.
“The winning time of 1:05.27 put down by River Radamus made this GS course one of the longest we've seen,” coach Rika Moore said.
The club kids brought home four medals and 15 ribbons, and Ski & Snowboard Club Vail brought home more ribbons and medals than any other club at the event.
River Radamus laid down great runs in the GS and Slalom to grab three 1st places and one 2nd place.
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Tanner Coulter of Eagle stomps his signature "Switch 10" during training in Waterville Valley, N.H., last week. Coulter nailed the trick during the J3 Freeride Junior Olympics to claim the slopestyle competition.
March 16, 2009 — Ski & Snowboard Club Vail's Tanner Coulter and Michael Wilhelm finished 1-2 in slopestyle March 11-12 in Waterville Valley, N.H., leading a strong charge by SSCV's J3 Freeride Team.
When asked how to best describe what the slopestyle competition entails for the freeride athletes, Anderson said that the skiers are hurling themselves off of 50-foot jumps. The goal is for a perfect and balanced takeoff with a solid landing.
“It’s really important to gauge your speed before the takeoff so the landing will be correct,” Anderson said.
In other words, if athletes take off too slow or fast, they run the risk of going too big or not big enough, which could result in a flat landing.
Coulter stomped his Switch 10 (a trick where the skier takes off going backwards and rotates three times -- or three helicopters -- with a mute grab, which is when skiers put their skis in an X and grab the outside edge.
Also in Waterville Valley, SSCV’s Freestyle Team competed in the moguls competition, and in that event Andre Lane placed fourth overall.
In the women’s mogul event, Kristi Waring was first in her J2 age group (15- and 16-year-olds), while Heidi Kloser placed sixth in the same group.
Both SSCV’s Freestyle and Freeride programs have athletes who will be heading to the nationals in Squaw Valley, Calif., next week.
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Ski & Snowboard Club Vail racer Abby Ghent, in action Friday in Aspen, just missed the podium in the J2 National Junior Olympics super G.
March 15, 2009 — In a very tight race on the super G track in which the top three spots for the men were separated by only 26-hundredths of a second, Taylor Shiffrin reached the podium for the second time at the J2 National Junior Olympics in Aspen with a third-place finish Friday.
Ski & Snowboard Club Vail’s Abby Ghent was part of another very tight race for the women’s field. Ghent took fourth Friday, a mere eight-hundredths of a second from a podium result.
Samuelson moved up an impressive 38 spots from her start number of 46 to finish 8th, and Strong climbed from a start position of 38th to finish 12th.
For the combined overall, which tallied points for the downhill, GS, and slalom, the women’s field saw Greta Byrne placing 2nd, Mary Sackbauer 7th, and Strong finishing 8th.
The Rocky/Central Division also walked away with the Regions Cup for the series.
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February 26, 2009 — An incredible 19 of the Ski & Snowboard Club Vail J3 racers have qualified for the 2009 USSA Rocky/Central J3 Junior Olympics to be held at Vail and Beaver Creek March 5 -11.
After a season of Junior Olympic qualifying events, and after some great results at the Winter Park Junior Olympic Qualifiers on Feb. 15 and 16, the following SSCV athletes have earned their spot to represent the Rocky Mountain Division of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association to compete against other Rocky Mountain skiers, as well as skiers from USSA’s Central Division.
SSCV Women going to the J3 JOs: Molly McGrew, Celine Guilmineau, Katharine Irwin, Mallory Slicker, Isabelle Zaik-Hodgkins, Caroline Byrne, Eva Spaeh, Olivia Swift, Kendall VanHee, and Kiersten Weiss.
SSCV Men going to the J3 JOs: Nick Braun, Anthony Romano, Barry Brinton, Thomas Walsh, Alex Leever, Thomas Grant, Connor Reynolds, Greycody Johns, Nick Santaniello, and Nicky Romano.
There is one more opportunity for ski racers to qualify for the J3 JOs in the Council Cup at Ski Cooper Feb. 28 through March 2 where athletes will be racing in a super-G, two giant slaloms, and two slaloms.
As with the Alpine skiers from SSCV, after a season of Junior Olympic qualifying events three freestyle skiers from SSCV have earned their berths for the JOs as of Feb. 20, with a chance for one more to make it. For these skiers, the Junior Olympics are a national event and will be held at Waterville Valley in New Hampshire March 9-15.
SSCV Freestyle skiers qualifying for the Junior Olympics: Heidi Kloser, Kristi Waring, and Andre Lane.
SSCV’s Freeride team has had some outstanding results. “The coaches and athletes have been on a whirlwind of events and are just now taking some time to breath,” said Freeride Program Director Noah Brooks.
This past weekend in Aspen, SSCV’s Kendall Deighan finished in first in half-pipe. Deighan also took home the Rocky Mountain Freestyle Athlete of the year. Deighan has won all of the USSA contests she has been in this year except for one.
Also qualified are seven athletes to the Junior Olympics in Waterville Valley, NH. Adam Crooke, Michael Wilhelm, John Leonard, Tanner Coulter, Christian Revello, Broby Leeds, Christian Pellerito, and Kendall Deighan will all battle it out with the top juniors in the country on March 11-12.
On the pro side of things the accomplishments have also been outstanding. Angeli VanLaanen took first place at the first Park City World Cup for half-pipe. At the Aspen Open Kendall Deighan took seventh place overall in half-pipe and Kristi Leskinen took second place for slopestyle.
On the Big Mountain side of things the Freeride Team just returned from Crested Butte for the US Freesking Championships. There was a big field of participants and all the kids skied well.
After the first day, Lizzie Seibert and Christian Nichols sat in first place. Gunnar Hamina and Max Darsonval both qualified to the finals as well. On the final day Lizzie skied very well and earned a second place overall finish.
Christian Nichols went head to head with some very talented skiers and wasn't able to keep his feet underneath him and fell in his final run. Gunnar Hamina skied great and finished in 12th place and Max Darsonval finished in 24th place.
“Thus far we are all so excited with the results that these kids are putting out. It has been such fun to see everyone excel and improve daily. From my perspective we have a group of champions being formed right now and it is going to be exciting to see where they go in the years to come,” said coach Brooks.
The next stops for the Freeride Team are the US Open, Junior Olympics, European Open, USSA Nationals, and USASA Nationals. There are many more chances for each of these kids to put out extraordinary results and we look forward to it.
2 Comments on "Local racers headed for Junior Olympics"
Nice work Tom! thanks for supporting the kids.
Great job Tanner and best of luck to you!
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