AVSC Freestyle Captures Snowmass Slopestyle Spotlight
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| by Alan Cole |
January 16, 2009
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AVSC's Torin Yater-Wallace Mid-Air
AVSC Freestyle skiers took full advantage of their home course at the Slopestyle and Snowmass on Saturday, January 4th. The event featured a large field containing 68 male and 7 female freeride skiers ages 13 and older from both the Rocky Mountain Division and Park City, Utah. "It was the biggest field ever for an RMD Slopestyle event," said AVSC freestyle coach Geoff Stump, "and for most it was their first competition of the season."
Leading the way for the AVSC women was Whitney Wickes showed the judges some nice style on the rails to finish second overall in both competitions. "Speed was definitely an issue," said Stump. "Some competitors had trouble clearing the third jump. Whitney had a nice mute 360 off the second jump with a tail grab. She's building steadily, looking good and solid and skiing like a veteran. There's much more to come from her as the season progresses."
AVSC newcomer Aidan Sheahan tied with teammate Jack Sullan for team-leading 4th place results in the morning before Sheahan upped his game to finish second overall in the afternoon. "Amazing that this was Aidans first USSA contest ever," said Stump. "He's a good skier and competed in the U.S. Open, but to bank two great finishes in one-run contests says a lot about his ability to compete. Hes a quality athlete that were going to hear a lot more from." Regarding Jack Sullans performance Stump said, "Jack stayed within himself but really upped the performance aspect of his run by carving into the first jump and sliding his hand up." All in all, AVSC placed five skiers in the top-10 in the morning. Travis Van Domelen finished seventh in the morning and moved up to fourth place in the afternoon. "Travis had a stylish run going with an excellent 900," said Stump. David Van Atta was in the mix until the last jump where he was unable to hold on to the landing.
13 year-old Torin Yater-Wallace had a remarkable day as a first-year J3 skier with back to back eighth place finishes overall (first and second for his J3 age class). "Torin has a huge bag of tricks but showed real patience and stayed within himself," said Stump. Kelly Selby and Walter Wood each took 10th place in the morning and afternoon respectively.
"All our guys are early in their progression and skied well within their ability which was smart because one-run competitions leave no room for mistakes," said Stump.
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For details, contact
Alan Cole
AVSC
(970) 205-5104
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