Nordic Combined

We just got back forom the 2017 Junior National Championships in Fox River Grove, IL.  We had an unusual but great week of competition.  It was an unusual tournament because the weather in the midwest has been very warm and dry lately so they did not have enough snow to maintain the jump. As a solution, they scraped the remaining snow off of the jump and used the plastic surface used for summer jumping.  It worked out great and made for consistent, fair conditions for all the jumpers.  The Nordic Combiners skied the 5K skate race on snow at Wilmot Ski Resort. 

I’ve attached a few pictures to this email, feel free to use them! The three podium shots are as follows:
U16 Male Indivudual Jumping (Niklas Malacinski 3rd place)
U20 Male Individual Jumping (Decker Dean 1st place)
U16 Female Individual Jumping (Annika Belshaw 1st, Hanako Schrock 3rd)

Thursday was the individual jumping and nordic combined events, Friday was the team jumping and nordic combined, and Saturday was a bracket-style elimination jump.

For full results, check out the following link:
https://jncjn2017.com/results

Telemark

SSWSC’s coach/athlete Lyta Foulk for the second year has won the Telemark National Championship held this year at the Grand Targhee Resort in Wyoming. For the second year in a row she was able to sweep all the races over the three day event, including two grueling Classic races, the Dual Sprint race, the Sprint.  Since the 2015 National Championships, when she fell, she has dominated US women’s telemark racing having not lost a race on US soil.  Next year she will be attending the University of Kentucky and thus should be done racing, but you never know.  US Nationals will be in the east next year.  Finn Dressen on the telemark development team also competed in the event as a junior.  In a tribute to SSWSC training, Finn and Lyta had the distinction of being the only racers in the long classic event of having perfect runs without any penalties.

The official results can be viewed HERE.

Moguls

March 9: SSWSC Athlete Jaelin Kauf won BRONZE in the World Championships in Dual Moguls in Spain! READ MORE HERE

March 3rd Letter from Coach Kate Blamey:
Last week the HP Mogul Team ventured to North Star California where there was an abundance of snow (and I mean it, I have never seen so much snow in my lifetime). North Star had received over 72 inches of snow in the week. See photo below of the girls beside the snow banks on the side of the road.

But the snow wasn’t going to stop us, Team Steam went out firing on Day 1 at the Singles event with 3 out of 4 athletes qualifying for finals - Maggie Ryan 11th, Avital Shimko 3rd and Lane Stoltzner 2nd. The course was some what flatter than that last couple of stops on the Nor-Am Tour and with some fresh snow there were no room for mistakes. Clean fast runs were what were required to get the job done in the Finals.

Maggie Ryan went for it in the Finals, skiing 2.5 secs faster but with a slight bobble and deep landing on the bottom air saw her place 10th overall. Lane and Avital put down fast clean run allowing them to move on to the Super Final in 1st and 3rd place respectively.

SUPER FINALS- Avital unfortunately got a little caught up in her 360, but skied an excellent fast paced run with a huge backtuck on bottom air which saw her place 4th (missed the podium by 0.09). Lane put down an extremely clean and fast run with big airs seeing her take the win over current Nor-Am Tour leader Canadian Berkley Brown by over a point. So all in all it was a great day for Team Steam -

Lane Stoltzner 1st
Avital Shimko 4th
Maggie Ryan 10th
Trudy Mickel 17th

If you want to watch here is Lane’s Run from Final 2 & Avital’s Run from Final 1.

Lane - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZOxV2mZM98

Avital- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRSPqBH6qfY

DUALS
This was definitely a duals day to remember for Team Steam as it was one like no other I have experienced on the Nor-Am Tour before. False starts to Re-runs to athletes switching courses half way through the dual bracket (very uncommon) there was no question that Team Steam was faced with multiple challenges throughout the day. But that didn’t stop Team Steam.

All 4 athletes made it through to the Final 16, but unfortunately Maggie Ryan came up against Australian Olympian Taylah O’Niell and lost in a close dual 20-15. Trudy Mickel skied extremely well against Sophie-Anne Gagnon (Ontario) to then come up against Nor-Am Tour leaser Berkley Brown in the Round of 8. Unfortunately she lost and placed 6th overall.

Avital and Lane went on to battle it out in the Semi finals against Berkley Brown and Hannah Soar (USA) where they both won, which meant they met each other in the big final and had to dual each other for 1st & 2nd place. It was clear there was no stopping Avital today, she was first out of the gate against Lane and wasn’t looking back. She put down a flawless run against Lane to take the Win.

It was great to have both girls in the big final and compete against each other for the gold medal. Both girls skied exceptionally well all day with high quality skiing and fast runs. With great results from both Avital and Lane this week it now puts them in 3rd and 2nd place overall respectively on the Nor-Am Tour. With less than 100 points behind the leader it is anyones race. Reminder winning the Nor-Am Tour qualifies you for a spot on the US Ski Team.

So again a very successful day for Team Steam.

Next and final stop on the Nor-Am Tour is Apex British Columbia for Nor-Am Cup Finals.

Alpine

U14

This past Friday thru Sunday, a handful of SSWSC U14 Alpine athletes ventured down to Ski Cooper to compete in the 24th annual Council Cup! After only 3 days at home after Prater Cup in Crested Butte, 8 athletes drove south once again to push their limits, stretch their speed, and fight to win!

The weather was the best. The snow was compact. The conditions were ripe for the picking, and the athletes picked it! Starting with the Super-G on Friday, the SSWSC ladies showed up and showed off! Emily Watson took the silver medal in the first race, and 4th in the second, while teammate Bryn Eliason was right behind her in 5th. On the men’s side, Brooks Overstake was our top performer earning a strong 13th. On Saturday, the athletes awoke with a smile as they had a day of slalom ahead of them, and SSWSC athletes know how to race slalom! The first race of the day placed the ladies in the 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 11th spots (Bryn Eliason, Emily Watson, Caroline Gilchrist, Sophia Gowdy, and Emma Ferer respectively). That wasn’t enough for these ladies, so they turned it up even more. In the second race, SSWSC found the top of the podium with Caroline Gilchrist! And rounding out the top-5 was Nicole Nolting in 5th. When Sunday rolled around, spirits were high! Athletes knew that they could run with the best in the race and they showed it! When the ladies rolled into the start for the first race, coach Gilly could tell “that they were all business. They were going to leave everything on the hill.” And girl did they! The first race found Nicole Nolting in 2nd, Caroline Gilchrist in 5th, Bryn Eliason in 7th, and Emily Watson in 10th. Meanwhile, Max Rotermund, fresh off an ACL tear this time last year, posted the strongest run of the weekend for the SSWSC U14 male squad earning 4th place! When the second race came, the athletes took to the course with a vengeance! Caroline Gilchrist raced to second, Nicole Nolting third, Emily Watson sixth, and Bryn Eliason tenth. What a way to round out the Council Cup!

With such strong finishes across the board for SSWSC’s Caroline Gilchrist, she earned herself 2nd place overall in the Council Cup standings and being top-3, she qualified to participate in the Rocky/Central Junior Championships to be held in Steamboat this March 16-20! Congratulations Caroline! Other strong overall finishers were Nicole Nolting in 5th, Emily Watson 7th, and Bryn Eliason 9th. Great racing ladies!

Caroline Gilchrist racing to 1st in the afternoon Slalom on Saturday!

U16

U16 Alpine recently returned from the Council Cup Races at Ski Cooper March 3-5. Eliza Fox started the series off with a strong 9th place result in the SG, she was followed by teammate Kendall Flake in 10th. In the Slalom races the next day Steamboat had some of their best performances of the weekend. Leo Davies took 2nd place in both slalom races. He was followed by teammate Bode Flannigan in 4th. This was Bode’s first race since a knee injury, and everyone was happy to see Bode’s return to racing, and mixing it up with the top competitors. Emily Schneider had a strong a day as well, finishing 2nd in the first of two races. She was followed by teammate Kendall Flake in 8th Place. In the last day of racing, two GS races were held. Kendall Flake stepped up big and was 3rd and 4th in the two GS races. Emily Schneider was 8th in both races. And Bode Flannigan was 4th and 5th place. 

As the first alternate for the U16 Regional Championships Emily Schneider found out this week that she had indeed qualified for the that event beginning this weekend in Vail. Leo Davies put up a great fight to qualify for Championships, but ultimately ended up 4th. The top 3 U16’s overall for each gender from the weekend, earned spots to the Regional Championships. Overall the Steamboat U16 athletes had some of their best individual performances of the season.