After a week of sunshine here in Colorado, the snow returned just in time for the USASA Nationalshalfpipe ski competition at Copper Mountain on Sunday. Although snow can make for challengingconditions, SSCV athlete Adam Crook prepared in advance, and it paid off big. Peter Adam Crook,of Team Vail, won the open class event. This is the group with highest level of competition.
“While I think it was smart of Adam to prepare his skis the night before in anticipation of snow, Ithink he would have skied well regardless,” said coach Elana Chase. “Adam had great training onFriday and Saturday, and he told me he was feeling it!”
Adam’s run was a cork 9tail with his signature grab, 9unnatural, flair, alley oops true flat 5, and astylish 1080 with a tail grab.
“Adam is a beautiful skier. When he hits his tricks, it’s among some of the most stylish pipe tricks inthe whole sport,” said Chase
Other exciting performances included SSCV’s John Leonard who placed 5th and was just coming offa win at the Junior Olympics. Leonard also won best trick in the halfpipe with a huge cork 1260.
“Despite the snow, John didn’t have any problems with his amplitude,” coach Chase said. He has thenatural ability to boost.”
Broby Leeds from Vail, also just returning from his 4th place finish at USSA Nationals in Vermont,placed in the top ten here at Copper. Although there were good moments to Broby’s skiing withswitch tricks, 900’s and his 1080 in practice, he just lacked enough overall impression to seize a highscore from the judges.
“Broby was one of the victims of the slow snow,” Chase said. “His skis were running slow so hecouldn’t reach is normal amplitude.”
On the women’s side, Kendall Deighan of Vail placed 2nd behind X Games competitor, MaddieBowman.
“I was impressed with Kendall’s ability to improvise,” Chase said. When she knew Maddie’s scorewas much higher than hers was after the first run, Kendall just started adding tricks. She really wentfor it and closed the gap, but Maddie has a little more experience than Kendall right now.”
To finish out the day strong, SSCV’s Freeride team also posted top results in slopestyle.
Mitchell Lee won the event for today and won the 13-15 year old category. “Mitchell’s run was switch 720, switch 540 and cork 900,” said coach Dave Zweig. “He had a fun,light hearted attitude and combined it with smooth grabbed tricks and stomped landings.”
Christian Pellerito, who was ranked first nationally coming into this event, ended his day in fourth,and won the best trick of the day with his switch misty9 off the second jump.
Cole Pate, of Eagle, Colorado and team Vail placed 10th in this highly competitive group.
“it’s great to see Cole shine,” said coach Zweig. “He has improved so much this year.”
Look for more results from team Vail in slopestyle and skiercross over next two days of continued competition.
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