Telemark

The February 13 – 14 Telemark Sprint Classic series in Alta Utah saw top performances by several Steamboat raised athletes in the expert classification.  Lyta Foulk, a current SSWSC athlete and a junior at Steamboat Spring High School, won gold in both the Saturday and Sunday expert division races.  This was Lyta’s first race back after suffering an early season knee injury.  Lyta is the highest rank U.S. woman in telemark racing and one of four athletes and the only woman on the U.S. World Cup team.  In March she will be competing in the U.S. Nationals in New Hampshire followed by World Cup races in Norway and Switzerland.

The other representative of the U.S. World Cup team with Steamboat ties, Tanner Visnick, also won a silver and gold in a strong field of National and World Cup Team athletes. Tanner is a former SSWSC athlete currently attending Montana State University.  He is recently back from competing in the Junior World Championships and World Cup races in France, and will be joining Lyta at the U.S. Nationals and in Switzerland in March.

Jeffery Gay, a former SSWSC athlete currently at University of Colorado, placed 6th both days.  Jeffery is the defending US National Champion.  Jack Rosenthal, former SSWSC athlete and currently at Colorado School of Mines, placed 11th and 12th, Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Alpine

U19/U21 & PG Program Shows Strong Results in NJR
To start Blues Break off, most of the team traveled out of division to Snow King Resort in Jackson, Wyoming for the Wild West Classic. Even though the Rocky-Central Division had wrapped up all of their U19 Nationals qualifying events, this was a U19 Nationals qualifying race for the Western Division, so it was good for our athletes to have a little race time against some other competitors and to get some outside exposure. The group as a whole, as we’ve seen throughout the year thus far, had some very strong skiing. But as we all know, this is a two-run sport and not everybody can capitalize everyday on both runs.

The SSWSC Viper Crew struck again with a win from Nick Santaniello, his second win of the season, in the first day of SL competition following up his 4th place finish earlier in the series in the GS. Jett Seymour again skied very solid, picking up the pace a little bit with a 4th place overall (3rd for U19’s) in the first day of SL and another top ten the second day. Zak Kjos stepped in the second day of SL competion with a 5th place overall, following up his 7th place from the day before. Patrick Gruber had two top 10 finishes with a 5th and 10th as well. Additionally, Zach Mikkelson ended his string of DNF’s in SL with his top FIS performance to date!

On the women’s side, the big story of the week was the comeback of Serina Kidd after tearing her ACL last season at U.S. Nationals. She started her 2016 season off pretty strong with 2 top 10’s, one of which was a 4th place overall in the first day of SL competition. Lauren Chavez also notched a top 10 in her first day of GS competition.

Next up, a handful of athletes will head down to Red River, NM for the University of New Mexico Invitational while the rest of the crew will be in Winter Park for some Colorado Surefoot FIS races. Wish us luck!!

U19 Nationals Team Named
SSWSC Athletes Jett Seymour, Mark Kate Hackworthy and Ellese Lupori were recently named to the U19 Nationals in Copper Mountain. This event will take place in early March.
Congrats to our athletes and best of luck!

On another note, congratulations to the athletes that qualified from SSWSC for the U19 Junior Nationals Competition at Copper Mountain February 28th- March 4th. These athletes are Jett Seymour, Ellese Lupori, and Mary Kate Hackworthy. Hats off to all of our athletes and their hard work thus far and just know there is plenty more ahead of us.

U16 Athletes
The U16 Alpine Athletes just returned from 4 days of GS and SL racing at Loveland Valley. All of the best U16 racers from the Rocky Mountain Division were in attendance, and the level of racing was very high. Cole Puckett had a strong 4 days of racing with 2- 2nd place finishes in the Giant Slalom, and a 4th place in one of the Slalom races. Trey Seymour had a solid week with an 8th and a 12th place finish in the 2 GS Races, and a 5th and an 8th place finishes in the 2 SL races. Trey’s brother Chase also had a good week with an 8th and a 12th place finish in the 2 SL races, and a 13th and 14th place in the 2 GS Races. For the Ladies Margaret Dickson had a strong GS showing landing in 9th place. And Hannah Soria was 10th in a SL race.

The U16 athletes will spend the next couple of weeks training here in Steamboat for the Rocky Central U16 Regional Championships in Vail and the Council Cup Championships in Ski Cooper, both events held in March.

U16 Championships Team Named
SSWSC has a strong group of U16 athletes who were recently named to the U16 Rocky/Central Championships in Vail, CO. The following athletes are currently qualified for U16 Championships:
Hannah Soria
Margret Dickson
Taylor Olson
Sequoia Anstine
Amber Elliot
Alex Blair
Olivia Flake
Cole Puckett
Trey Seymour
Chase Seymour
Kyle Kagen
Kyler Armstrong
Colton Sankey
Jake Olson

Best of luck to the athletes at Council Cup as you race for the final few spots!

Additionally Cole Puckett was recently named to the Rocky Central European Racing Project in Folgaria, Italy, based on his results from a U16 National Time Trial held this past November. The long standing international Topolino Alpine competition will feature the top 4 male and female athletes from the top ski racing countries around the world. The races Cole will be representing SSWSC in will be the GS and SL competitions held March 3rd-5th.

High Winds Impact Venue
After some high winds Thursday evening which resulted in a closure of Steamboat Ski Area, our coaches and athletes worked hard to re-install BNet.
Great team effort on everyone’s part and the opportunity for athlete’s to contribute to their own safety while training.

U10 Airbag Session