Snowboarding

The Snowboard race team is finishing up their year with trips recently to ski Chanticleer in Quebec for Canadian nationals and other riders going to Europe for Europa cups and national championships. In Europe AJ Muss had a great result at Rogla with the fastest qualifying time and then getting bumped back to 9th which is still really good in a World Cup field. Prior to that Ryan Rosencranz had a great result at the Swiss national championships placing 12th in PGS again in a very high-level field of riders.


Meanwhile at Canadian nationals Mike Trapp and Steve MacCutcheon had successes, Mike placing 3rd in PGS and Steve getting 4th in the PSL in extremely challenging conditions. A few days later there was a Junior FIS PGS and Riley Kilmer Choi climbed the podium to second place.


Next up for the team is the US nationals at copper as well as the Junior World championships at Rogla Slovenia to wrap up another successful season.

Alpine

U16 athletes
The U16’s competed in a Colorado Sync Cup/Garner Game Championships GS, SL and Dual Competition in Winter Park this past weekend. With 4 feet of new snow at Winter Park in the past week, the courses proved challenging and were a real test of skill and determination.  Hannah Soria continued her podium streak finishing as the 3rd U16 in the GS, Margaret Dickson was 10th, with the second fastest second run! Sequoia Anstine was 17th, Taylor Olson 21st, Amber Elliott 27th. On the Men’s side in the GS Cole Puckett finished 5th(4th U16) followed by his younger brother Cooper in 8th place (1st U14) starting 63rd! Colton Sankey was 20th, Kyle Kagan 21st, and Jake Olson 30th.

The sun came out for the Slalom, but the courses were still very soft. On the Men’s side Cole Puckett again led the way as the 2nd U16 and 3rd Overall. Overall Trey Seymour was 5th, Chase Seymour 9th, Colton Sankey 12th, Cooper Puckett was again the top U14 and 13th overall, and Jake Olson was 28th. On the Ladies side Overall Sequoia Anstine was 18th, Amber Elliott 19th, and Olivia Flake 25th.

The last day of racing consisted of a Dual Panel Slalom, the event was a lot of fun and brought out some real competitiveness in our athletes. Making it to the round of 16 were Steamboat Skiers Amber Elliott, Sequoia Anstine, Taylor Olson, Kyle Kagan, Kyler Armstrong and Colton Sankey. Colton and Taylor both made it into the round of 8 before being eliminated, and Kyler Armstrong made it all the way to the Finals, and ended up 2nd! The Sync Cup Race Series is over and Cole Puckett ended the Series as the 2nd overall U16 for the Season. Cole Puckett, Trey Seymour, Hannah Soria and Cooper Puckett are competing at U16 Nationals in Snowbird Utah this week, and the U16’s are looking forward to racing the GS Spectacular in Vail this weekend.

Coach Keating and Cole Puckett

U14 athletes
This past week, U14 SSWSC Alpine athletes Nico Richeda and Marat Washburn traveled to Sugarloaf, Maine to represent SSWSC and the Rocky/Central Division of USSA in the 2016 CanAm race series. In this event, top athletes from the Eastern states and Canada make the trip to compete and see where they stack up against racers from a broader region base. With the race hill hard and their edges sharp, Nico and Marat took to the race courses and proved that they can “run with the big dogs!” 

Due to weather, the skills assessment was cancelled on Friday so the event began with Slalom on Saturday. Both Nico and Marat suffered the misfortune of “hooking a tip” on their first runs, putting them out of the running for the overall in this event. They still charged on their second run, with Marat placing 2nd on the run and Nico placing 13th. When Sunday rolled around, the surface got even harder, and the boys took to the classic “Narrow Gauge” race hill and sent it! They tied for second on the first run, and after the second run Marat ended up taking the overall win and Nico placed 3rd.

On Monday, the weather was turning south fast, so they adjusted the schedule to race GS instead of the planned SG. The wind was blowing and the hard snow began to get bumpy and deteriorate, but that did not deter our SSWSC racers! After the first run, Marat held the lead and Nico landed in 4th. As the wind continued to pick up and rain stared to fall, the race organizers raced to get the second run complete. The boys charged hard again, landing in 1st overall for Marat and 4th overall for Nico. It was a great week for SSWSC and the Rocky/Central Region representing in Sugarloaf, Maine!