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KMS and KSC/KMS skicross racers led the charge at USASA Nationals; Mazie Hayden took the win in the Girls 10-12 division, while Taylor Doxsee '11 took the win in the Men's 18+ event. BOOST student-athlete Chloe Pultar took first in Girls 10-12 slopestyle as well as fourth in halfpipe and second amongst girls 13 and younger in the rail jam. Jack Sylvester added another podium to the tally with a second-place finish in Skier Men 13-15, while Tec Calcagni just missed the top 30 in that event and then took 10th in the halfpipe competition. Charlie Gnoza claimed a pair of podium finishes, taking third in both slopestyle and halfpipe competition for the nine-and-under crowd. In the Open Men's class, Ari Schneider took 13th in the halfpipe and 23rd in slopestyle, while KSC/KMS alum Matt Crowe took 15th in the halfpipe and 28th in slopestyle. Max Tarricone added two more top-30 results with a 16th-place finish in halfpipe and a 24th-place finish in slopestyle for the Boys 10-12 division.
On the snowboard side, Logan Farmer took the top KMS result with a consolation-final win in the Youth Men division for boardercross, adding a fifth-place finish in that event to a 13th-place finish in giant slalom and a 15th-place finish in slalom. BOOST student-athlete Sophie Anderson took seventh in slopestyle for Youth Women; KSC/KMS competitor Maggie Leon also rode into the top 30 with a 28th-place finish in the same division. Kamran Gossieaux took top-twenty finishes in both slalom and giant slalom in the Junior Men category, while BOOST student-athlete Shane Smith rode strong to move up 30 spots from his ranking in Breaker Boys slopestyle and then qualified for brackets in boardercross. Nikki Sardelli crashed in the Breaker Girls boardercross quarterfinals, finishing the day in 16th position.
The freeride team had its last Vermont events of the 2011-12 season over the past few weeks, with the Rev Tour and Carinthia Open at Mt. Snow before the final K-Town Showdown of the season. Many of the freeride athletes will be headed to USASA National Championships at Colorado's Copper Mountain, where they will be competing for halfpipe, slopestyle and rail jam titles against competitors from throughout the country.
The season's last Rev Tour stop began on March 15 with slopestyle competition in which KSC/KMS alum Matt Crowe took 23rd and several KMS athletes—Sam Gnoza (31), Cooper Babbitt (33), Tec Calcagni (34), Ari Schneider (38) and Eric Unterberger (41)—stacked up just outside the top 30. Competition moved to the halfpipe the following day as Matt took sixth and Cooper seventh; Tec and Ari rounded out the top 20 in 15th and 18th. The Carinthia Open kicked into gear the following day as Devon Savino qualified for finals in the Pro division and Jack Sylvester took third in the Amateur division.
Despite the summer weather that threatened to derail the event, the Killington Terrain Parks crew worked hard and hosted the final competition in the K-Town Showdown series. KMS and KSC/KMS skiers and riders made the best of the rail jam format as Joey Leon and Robbie Ettori took first and third in the snowboard grom division while Josh Tarricone and Sam Gnoza took second and third for skier groms. In the open division, Maggie Leon took a bunch of swings at two big tricks—a frontside lip on the downbar and gap to 50-50 on the down-flat-down rail—to grab third place in the women's open category. For a full report on the KSC/KMS snowboarders at the event, including video, check out the KSC/KMS Snowboard Team blog.
With a strong season of USASA Southern Vermont Series competition behind them, freeride competitors are ready for USASA National Championships at Colorado's Copper Mountain. Ari Schneider, Tec Calcagni, Sam Gnoza, Eric Unterberger, Jack Sylvester, Josh Tarricone, Max Tarricone, Charlie Gnoza and Carter Gordon—nine athletes in total—qualified to represent Vermont at Copper. Josh skied well enough throughout the series not only to qualify for nationals but also took the Southern Vermont Series halfpipe title in the Skier Men (13-15) age group.
"Everyone skied great this winter, and I'm really looking forward to everyone showing off their skills on a national level," said Coach DJ Montigny.
With FIS racing in the eastern U.S. coming to a close this past weekend, KMS racers and alumni have been busy getting their last in-country starts before heading out for Canadian races to wrap up the season. The men's team posted eight top-30 results from FIS Devo Finals at Sunday River this past weekend, with Andrew Kimbell (17) racing into the top 30 and Ben Scheu a tenth of the second out of the top 30 in Thursday's giant slalom. Dan Martin led the team in Saturday's slalom, tying for 21st as Julian Scherding skied his way into 25th, jumping over 50 spots from bib 81; Ben nearly halved his bib as he skied from the 49th start position into 26th place, as did Wyatt Queirolo in moving from 59th to 30th. Mike Ferri had the sixth-fastest first run of the day but ran into trouble in the second run and ended the day in 40th. Sunday's slalom saw James Ferri take 13th, just edging Dan (14) as Ben (28) and Julian (30) rounded out the top 30. Brian O'Rourke halved his start position, finishing 53rd after starting 124th.
College nationals also wrapped recently with Jim Ryan '09 and Zach Clayton '07 representing Colby College and the University of New Hampshire, respectively, at NCAA National Championships while Rob Visconti '09 represented Northeastern University in USCSA National Championships. Rob took 11th in the slalom and 17th in the giant slalom at Sunday River. Across the country at the 2012 NCAA National Championships in Montana, Jim tied for 18th in the giant slalom and 25th in the slalom while Zach took 25th in the giant slalom and 14th in the slalom.
In George Tormey Series racing at Bromley, Kara Van Herwarde led the women's team with a sixth-place finish; Michelle Martin (9), Jessie McNeill (11), Kelly Rowland (19), Heather Desino (25) and Molly Peek (28) rounded out the women's top 30. Sawyer Mattsson took sixth and Brendan Byron ninth for the men.
The J3 Team brought strong momentum from the Mid-Vermont Council season into the state championships and on to Eastern Junior 3 Championships at Sugarloaf. Racing kicked off with a Super-G in which Piper and Jonny each took 15th. In the giant slaloms, Ian Clarke took 11th while Alli Price took fifth and Piper sixth for the girls. Slalom racing saw Jonny take third and Piper fifth; Ian Clarke ended the day in 30th position.
In J4 State Championships at Pico, Matt Price won the slalom, while Tessa Queirolo (18), Felicia Ayer (23), Mikayla Stolar (24) and Tory Dobyns (25) represented in the girls in the top 30. In the giant slalom, Matt finished the day in 22nd after second-run trouble kept him from matching his fifth-place first run; Tessa took 22nd and Mikayla 26th.
The 2012 Eastern Qualifying Series for freestyle skiing concluded Sunday as Waterville Valley hosted the East Coast Junior Championships and East Coast Young Guns Championships. KMS and KSC/KMS skiers took nearly 40 top-10 finishes across the six competitions, with the young guns putting on a particularly impressive showing as they took six out of 13 possible mogul podiums and 10 out of 24 possible freeride podiums.
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East Coast Young Guns Championships |
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Moguls |
Air |
Slopestyle |
F5
1. Madison Hogg
11. Cassie Cavallo
13. Dani Heims
F6
1. Kasey Hogg
2. Delphine Esformes
5. Kaia Schmid
7. Juilanna Cavallo
10. Brinley Johnson
11. Ally Grobman
F7
1. Kassidy Lynch
M5
2. Frankie Giaccio
8. Jack T. Preschern
13. Cole D. Ward
16. Thomas A. Autiello
19. Devin Johnston
21. Christopher Imbarrato
23. Conan Green
26. Clay W. Lynch
27. Keenan Green
28. Matthew Dispenza
M6
1. Charlie Gnoza
4. Anthony Autiello
5. Cameron Solomon
6. Daktoa Stuart
7. Tyler T. Damore |
F5
7. Cassie Cavallo
F6
2. Julianna Cavallo
6. Ally Grobman
M5
13. Conan Green
19. Carter Gordon
M6
1. Tyler T. Damore
2. Dakota Stuart
3. Matthew Labaugh
M7
1. Trae R. Damore
2. Marcus Cavallo |
F5
6. Cassie Cavallo
F6
4. Julianna Cavallo
M5
17. Frankie Giaccio
21. Carter Gordon
26. Lucas B. Alvarez
29. Conan Green
M6
1. Tyler T. Damore
3. Charlie Gnoza
5. Matthew Labaugh
7. Cameron Solomon
10. Dakota Stuart
M7
1. Trae R. Damore
2. Marcus Cavallo |
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East Coast Junior Championships |
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Moguls |
Air |
Slopestyle |
F3
10. Jia Hong
14. Emma L. Fischer
19. Rose O'Brien
F4
4. Olivia Giaccio
7. Mazie Hayden
8. Alexandra Lanka
M3
15. Ben Arquit
M4
4. Stewart Olson
5. Kalman Heims
7. Collin Campbell
8. Griffin K. Ward
9. Ben E. Mason
11. Mark Preschern
13. Zachy Noah Simpson
16. Luc Esformes
22. Blake Levitts
28. Kyle Rasmussen |
M4
29. Collin Campbell |
F4
7. Olivia Giaccio
M4
26. Ben E. Mason |
Congratulations to all the athletes on another strong EQS season!
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Nick Marino (left) skis to a fourth-place finish at Steamboat. (SkinDog SunShield photo) |
The combined efforts of the KMS and KSC/KMS mogul and freeskiing teams garnered a total of 15 top-30 finishes, including five top-10 results, at last week's U.S. Junior National Championships. Competition started with men's halfpipe on Wednesday, March 7, where Cooper Babbitt qualified for finals in 16th and then took 14th overall with a run that included a huge 7 into a switch 3. The freeride team moved over to the slope course on Thursday, where Sam Gnoza took 24th and Devon Savino 28th in their respective heats; they then moved on to aerials on Friday, where Devon just missed stepping onto the podium and took a fourth-place finish behind two U.S. Ski Team members and a U.S. Ski Team Development Group competitor. Ari Schenider took 18th overall, seventh in his age group, while Tec Calcagni was seventh in his age group and 23rd overall; Sam Gnoza took 28th on the day, 10th in the M3 category.
Mogul competition began on Friday, March 9, as Kayla Burcin led the team with a ninth-place overall finish and took second in her age group. Allison Benedict took 11th overall, while Hannah Soar— a first-year competitor at junior nationals—took 24th overall and the top spot in the F4 age group; Kat Spilman took 26th on the day, sixth in her age group. On the men's side, several KMS skiers had trouble putting together a top-to-bottom run, but Tyler Wadhams '11 was able to put one together and take 24th; Abe Studler, another first-year competitor at junior nationals, just missed the top 30 overall but took sixth in the M3 age class. Dual mogul competition on Sunday saw the strongest mogul skiing of the weekend for KMS and KSC/KMS as Megan Moores took seventh in the women's competition and Nick Marino skied consistently all day to take fourth for the men.
Sam Gnoza also took third overall in the combined standings on the basis of all-around finishes. For photos and videos from the event, check out the KMS Mogul Team Facebook page.
With Vermont J3 State Championships wrapping up and Vermont J4 State Championships beginning, KMS and KSC/KMS racers took another 10 front-page finishes this past weekend. Jonny Schwartz and Alli Price had the top finishes at the J3 events, with Jonny taking third in the boys' slalom and Alli taking fourth in the girls' giant slalom. The girls had trouble putting two clean runs together in Saturday's slalom; Ava Mattsson had the best pair of runs to take 16th, while Alli was less than two tenths off the first-run leader but had trouble in her second run and ended the day in 29th overall. Piper Jenne had trouble on the first run and then skied her way to the sixth-fastest second run after starting from the back.
On Sunday, the girls bounced back from Saturday's challenges and "skied a great race," said coach Will Courtney. Alli took fourth to lead Piper (12), Ava (15), Marina (18) and Sarah Mason (21) into the top 30.
Meanwhile, boys' racing at Sugarbush was delayed by a day due to the weather, pushing their slalom to Sunday and the giant slalom to Monday. Jonny "stuck with it and finished," ending the day in third overall after battling to stay in the course during the second run. Patrick Salisbury-Jennings was the next-fastest Killington skier, moving up over 50 spots to finish 40th.
In the giant slalom, the boys made some adjustments after the first run to put down top-10 second run times—Jonny, Ian Clarke, and Cam Heald finished seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively, on the run to end the day in 11th, 14th and 18th overall.
Based on their performances at state championships, Alli, Piper and Ava have qualified for Eastern J3 Championships at Sugarloaf; Marina was named first alternate and qualified along with Sarah Mason to J3 Finals today through Sunday at Killington, where they will be racing for start positions at Eastern J3 Championships. On the boys' side, Jonny, Cam and Ian qualified for Eastern J3 Championships.
As J3 State Championships wrapped up, J4 State Championships began with Sunday's Super-G at Stratton. Matt Price took fourth to lead five BOOST and KSC/KMS boys in the top 30; he was joined there by Alden Anderson (15), Tommy Kenosh (16), Crawford Jones (22) and Joseph Salisbury-Jennings (24), who cut 30 spots—over half—off his starting position. On the girls' side, Grace Vollers took ninth and Caroline Keller 13th.
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Dan Martin races to a fifth-place finish in the final Vermont Cup race of the 2012 season. With a late push that included second place this past Saturday and fifth on Sunday, Dan ended the season ninth overall in the Vermont Cup standings. For more Middlebury GS photos, visit the KMS Men's Alpine Team on Facebook. |
The 2012 Vermont Cup season wrapped up this past weekend with its final slalom on Highline and the final giant slalom at Middlebury. In Saturday's slalom, 13 home-team racers finished in the top 30. Michelle Martin led the women with a second-place finish; Kara took fifth, first in her age class, while Jessie (9) and Kelly Rowland (15) rounded out the women's top 15. Molly Peek just missed the top 30 and ended the day in 31st. On the men's side, Dan Martin edged Dylan Malone for second; they were joined in the men's top 30 by Andrew Kimbell (6), Kenny McNeill (16), Kyle Mason (18), Brendan Byron (25), Jack Salisbury (26), Peter Spangler (27) and Sawyer Mattsson (28).
In Sunday's giant slalom at Middlebury, blue skies gave way to heavy overcast as the first run started, and storm clouds brought snow for the second run. With smart skiing on a challenging hill, Dylan took third; he was joined in the top 30 by Dan (5), Julian Scherding (8), Kyle (9, with the sixth-fastest second run), Andrew Kimbell (11), Peter Spangler (20), Kenny McNeill (24) and Brian O'Rourke (26). Four additional KMS and KSC/KMS racers—Brendan Byron, James Coen III, Jack and Marshall Tamsin—stacked themselves just outside the top 30, taking 31st through 34th.
In the Vermont Cup Overall, Brian collected 325 points to take third, just edging Dylan's 320 points and fourth-place finish. Kyle Mason (7), Dan Martin (9) and James Ferri (12) rounded out the men's top 15, while Kristie Ryan took 13th for the women.
In other recent racing action, Ben Scheu and Dan Martin each had top-30 finishes in Eastern Cup Super-G races at Burke, while Allison Visconti '11 added a pair of front-page Eastern Cup finishes at Stowe to her season total.
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Jia Hong skis to a second-place finish in the Vermont State Championships, the regional final for EQS mogul competition. For more mogul photos, visit the KMS Mogul Team on Facebook. |
KMS and KSC/KMS skiers in the Eastern Qualifying Series ("B" series) wrapped up regular-season events this weekend with the Vermont State Chapmionships at Killington. 26 KMS and KSC/KMS skiers finished in the top 30 after Saturday's two-run competition on Conclusion, led by a trio of podium finishes—Griffen Ward bounced back from a first-run crash to take the boys' win in the two-run event while Jia Hong took second and Olivia Giaccio tied for third in the girls' standings. KSC/KMS skiers took another 23 top-30 finishes in Sunday's freeride competitions.
With weather that remained better than forecast—the predicted showers materialized only in the form of light and mostly frozen precipitation in the morning before the sun came out and the sky turned blue—both spectators and competitors were able to enjoy a full day of competition. Despite the shorter course and softer bumps than those seen on the venue during the ECS and Nor Am competitions this season, Conclusion still proved a serious challenge for the younger skiers. KMS and KSC/KMS athletes met that challenge while taking those 26 top-30 finishes.
Joining Jia and Olivia in the girls' top 30 were Madison Hogg (7), Mazie Hayden (11), Emma Fischer (14), Kasey Hogg (16), Rose O'Brien (20), Delphine Esformes (22), Alexandra Lanka (23), Kaia Schmid (28) and Dani Heims (30). On the boys' side, Luc Esformes (7), Stewart Olson (9) and Mark Preschern (10) joined Griffin in the top 10; Ben Arquit (15), Matthew Dispenza (17), Ben Mason (18), Blake Levitts (20), Devin Johsnton (22), Carson Fischer (23), Jack Preschern (25), Christopher Imbarrato (27), Kyle Rasmussen (28), Cole Ward (29) and Charlie Gnoza (30) rounded out the top 30. Olivia, Madison, Kasey and Charlie were also the top finishers in their respective age groups.
In Sunday's air and slopestyle competitions, the girls led the way with eight top-10 finishes. Cassie Cavallo took fifth, Juliana Cavallo seventh, and Ally Grobman eighth in the air competition, while Olivia Giaccio took third, Cassie Cavallo eighth, Julianna Cavallo ninth, Ally Grobman 10th and Elise Sharrock 11th in the slopestyle. Julianna led her age group in both events. On the boys' side, Collin Campbell took 10th in the air event and was joined in the top 30 by Conan Green (14), Dylan Damore (19), Carter Gorden (20), Jack Petrone (22), Tyler Damore (23), Trae Damore (25), Matthew Labaugh (26), Marcus Cavallo (27), Dakota Stuart (28) and Brendan Konigsberg (29). In slopestyle, Charlie Gnoza took 20th and was joined in the top 30 by Ben Mason (23), Jack Petrone (27) and Matthew Labaugh (29). Jack was the top competitor in his age group in both competitions, while Dylan was the top M6 competitor in the air event and Charlie the top M6 competitor in slopestyle.
The USASA Southern Vermont Series regular season wrapped up with slopestyle and halfpipe competitions this past weekend, and KMS competitors took 10 top-10 spots in the snowboard and freeskiing competitions. In Saturday's slope competition, Maggie Leon, Charlie Gnoza and Tec Calcagni took second in their respective age groups, while KSC/KMS alum Matt Crowe won, Eric Unterberger took third and Ari Schneider fourth in the open men category. Tin Skoric took fourth in his grouping, while Max and Josh Tarricone took sixth in theirs. Sam Gnoza took eighth in Skier Men 13-15 while Ryan Sihler hit that mark in Breaker Boys, followed by Joey Leon (11) and Jake Fournier (13).
Sunday's competition moved to the halfpipe, where Ari took first and Matt second in the open skier class; Tec took the win in Skier Men 13-15 ahead of BOOST alum Will Halper (2), Sam (3) and Josh (4). Abigail Lancour also took third in her class.
Meanwhile, USASA boardercross racing continued in Massachusetts as Ski Ward hosted a pair of races on Sunday. BOOST student-athlete Sophie Anderson won her group in both races, while Jessie Kunkowski took third- and fourth-place finishes; Kamran Gossieaux had a pair of fifth-place finishes.
Also last week, Devon Savino traveled to the Aspen Open, where he advanced from qualifiers into finals and ended up 25th in a field that included X Games and Dew Tour competitors.
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