Ski & Snowboard Club Vail racers shine at National Performance Series in Aspen

Ski & Snowboard Club Vail had much to celebrate following the United States Ski and Snowboard Association’s second National Performance Series project held last week in Aspen.  This project brings the nation’s best sixteen through eighteen-year-old men together three times throughout the season in an educational environment for training and competition working with USSA, club and academy coaches.

The first of the NPS projects focusing on slalom was hosted by Ski & Snowboard Club Vail in November. Due to limited giant slalom terrain in the east, the giant slalom segment of this series was moved from Stowe, Vermont to Aspen, Colorado.

Each of the three United States Ski and Snowboard Association regions can send a quota of twenty athletes to the National Performance Series. The following SSCV athletes were invited to participate in this project, the largest representation by far of athletes of any club in USSA’s Rocky Central Region:

1999 year of birth

Jacob Dilling

Bridger Gile

Brendan Keane

Colby Lange

Matthew Macaluso

Patrick Ottley

1998 year of birth

Jack Keane

Kaison Lavicka

Kyle Negomir

River Radamus

1997 year of birth

Logan Martin

Tagert Mueller

Following two days of training, these NPS athletes competed in two giant slalom National Junior Races last Wednesday and one Federation of International Skiing giant slalom race last Thursday at Aspen Highlands. Top 1995 and 1996 birth year racers from across the country were invited to join the NPS athletes in this race series, creating an exciting field of 80+ racers.

Six SSCV athletes placed twice in the top fifteen across the three races- Jacob Dilling, Bridger Gile, Jack Keane, Colby Lange, River Radamus as well as recent alumnus Clay Kirkwood, with Gile, Radamus and Keane seeing three top 15 finishes. Matthew Macaluso and Kyle Negomir also earned a top fifteen finish.

Radamus finished first for juniors (birth year 1997 and younger) in all three races, while also taking second overall in two of the three races and third overall in the third race. Kirwood also took an impressive 3rd overall in the second race.

“We are extremely proud of the performances of our athletes and alumni in these races,” stated SSCV Alpine Program Director Karen Ghent. “Their hard work both on and off snow year round at their age is paying off. And to have four athletes-Dilling, Gile, Lange and Macalouso achieve top 15’s as 1999 year of birth athletes during their first year competing at this level is truly notable.”

Ghent continued, “Not only did we see top placements, but we also saw personal bests from Dilling, Gile, Kirwood, Macaluso and Negomir. We emphasize to our athletes of all ages that the most important thing they can do each day is to improve upon what they did the day before, rather than focusing on what others are doing around them, and these guys did just that!”

The Super G portion of the National Performance Series project, the last in the three-part National Performance Series, is scheduled to take in Mt. Bachelor, Oregon from April 10-12.

For a complete list of official results visit http://www.fis-ski.com/