IMAGES ARE IN SLIDESHOWS, PRESS THE ARROWS TO BROWSE
The Mountain Sports athletes, media and coaches traveled to Lake Placid, New York for USCSA Nationals at Whiteface Mountain. Fourteen Athletes were sent to compete, as well as three coaches and three media folks. The team will compete in Nordic, Skier/Boarder Cross, and Park and Pipe events during the weeklong event. The team left Gunnison friday afternoon, and after driving through a snowstorm, reached DIA in time for the flight. Travel went well, and the team arrived in New York saturday. Everyone got settled in and focused on getting rested and prepared for the week of competition.
Monday is the first day of practice. The Park and Pipe team will be riding through the slope style course, and practicing for the rail jam on tuesday. Nordic will be working on maintaining their endurance base and getting used to the east coast snow. Nordic will also be working on short sprints to get ready for their events. The Skier/Boarder cross team will also be getting used to the east coast snow and skiing again after a few days of rest.
DAY ONE:
Monday was a very productive day for Western’s Mountain Sports Program. The freestyle team headed out to Whiteface Mountain for some time on the freestyle courses they will ski throughout the week. Everyone was pleasantly surprised at a light cover of snow in the morning, which made for soft conditions. The Nordic team traveled to the Olympic Training Center just outside of the city limits to test the 8.5K course for tomorrow. The snow was fast and the temperatures were warm. Everyone is prepped and stoked to do their best tomorrow!
DAY TWO:
Day Two was an awesome day for the Mountain Sports team. The Nordic squad had a 8.5km skate race at the Lake Placid Olympic Center and all athletes did exceptionally well. Skiers were able to work and improve upon their personal record times, and everyone was happy at how the races turned out. After a hard workout yesterday and getting used to lower elevations and different snow conditions, everyone started to feel much more comfortable on their skis. The Nordic team is very excited for the events to come.
The Skiers and Snowboarders also had an impressive day on the slopes of Whiteface Mountain. The team competed in a quarter pipe compitition and a rail jam. The quarter pipe competition was tough, but the team was able to place third overall. The rail jam was where the team really excelled.
Grady with a big three out of the down-flat-down-flat-down.
Two athletes were able to take home the gold. Hunter Knoll placed first for men’s snowboard by throwing a disaster cab 270 onto the down-flat-down rail, among a variety of other impressive tricks that landed him in first place.
Miranda Holson took the gold in the women’s heat. She threw a blind 270 out of the down-flat-down and flat-drop-flat, as well as a giant disaster on the down-flat-down. She was only the only girl in the jam that was able to grease the down-flat-down-flat-down as well as all features in the competition. Overall Day Two ended with lots of happy nordic skiers and two gold medals at Whiteface.
Western taking the gold at the rail jam
DAY THREE:
It was a powdery day for Western’s Mountain Sports Program today. With a bunch of new accumulation today, each event had some challenges. The Nordic team still had an excellent day amid all the flying snow, with Bob Maddox coming in eighth overall for the 1.5K classic sprint.
The freestyle team performed at their best during the Vulcan storm. Even though they were considerably slowed down by the new powder, everyone rode their best. Hunter took second place with a well rehearsed run, and played on his ability to throw bigger tricks regardless of the conditions. He was able to land a huge tail 720 off one of the bigger jumps to get him a high scoring run. Miranda Holson took fourth place with some impressive tricks, but unfortunately fell on her final run.The mens snowboard team took 2nd overall, and the mens ski slope team took third overall. Miranda carried the women on her back and scored Western a third place award. Wednesday was a impressive day for the Western Mountain Sports Program.
DAY FOUR:
Thursday was a down day for the Nordic team here at Nationals, but mens skiers and snowboarders competed in the ski and boarder cross races. The night before the team put a lot of work into waxing their skis and boards to make sure they matched the weather conditions, and this really paid off. All the Western athletes made it past the first rounds, and were able to make it into qualifiers.
Morgan Hunter Haymans was able to get second place overall, and Matt Martell placed seventh and Connor Michael place eighth. With three athletes placing in the top ten, Western was able to get first overall in mens skier-x, which was a huge win for the team. Friday is women’s skier cross, so check back in to see how Miranda Holson does in her event.
The mens skiers took first overall in the Skier-x.
DAY FIVE
Although friday was a more low-key day, Western’s Mountain Sports Program still went hard in the competition. The Nordic team woke up bright and early head to the corse and wax up for the 15K classic race. Bob Maddox took 7th overall in a packed race of 47. Miranda Holson competed in the women’s skiercross at Whiteface mountain with a 7th place as well. It was a good day for Western!
DAY SIX:
Day six went by quickly. With only the Snowboard Giant Slalom to compete in, the team crushed it. The remainder of the day was spent shredding Whiteface mountain and having fun. It was a good time for the team to relax and have fun. Later in the evening we traveled to the awards ceremony where Westerns Mountain Sport’s Program took home a ton of medals and represented their school in the best way possible. Go Western!
RECAP
Our final day of Nationals was filled with travel. The team woke up early to drive down to Albany where we caught our first flight. Everything went smoothly and we reached Denver later that day. The team got back safely to Gunnison early monday morning.
The week wrapped up very nicely with Western’s Mountain Sports team taking home a load of metals. Throughout the week Western’s Mountain Sports team did a phenomenal job, each athlete giving their all to the the snow-sport competitions. The final results are below.
Bob Maddox placing top 10th for nordic
(Left to right) Andrew Arnold, Hunter Knoll, and Grady Shoop take 3rd place overall for mens free-ride snowboarding
Andrew, Hunter, and Grady showing off their hardware
Miranda Holson took 2nd place, and 3rd overall, even though she was the only woman on Western’s Free-ride Team
Western’s Men Freestyle Skiers take 2nd place overall
Media updates were brought to you by Taylor Ahearn, Mason Strehl, and Kyle Spaulding.
Don’t forget to check out @westernmountainsports on instagram and @westernmountainsprts on Twitter for more updates.
Weekly Calendar:
Monday: Practice
Tuesday: Rail Jam/Nordic 8.5k . Results: Two Rail Jam Gold Medals
Wednesday: Slopestyle/Nordic 1.5k classic sprint. Results: 2nd, 3rd, 4th Slopestyle/8th Nordic
Thursday: Board and Ski Cross. Results: 2nd, 7th, 8th. 1st overall in Skier-x.
Friday: Board and Ski Cross/Nordic 15k classic Results: 2nd, 7th Skier-x
Saturday: Snowboard Giant Slalom/Nordic Team Sprint Results: No Placement
Comments are closed.