Freestyle team wraps up season in Colo.
Current and former members of the Whitefish Mountain Resort Freestyle Team took on the best of the best at the U.S Snowboard Association's National Championship earlier this month at Copper Mountain, Colo.
The group of five local riders garnered four top-15 finishes against a stacked field of elite skiers and snowboarders from across the nation.
Whitefish Mountain Resort freestyle program director Steve Knox described the event as the country's "premier" entry-level competition.
"All the great snowboarders started their career there," Knox said, naming Shawn White and Danny Davis as a few examples. "So the top, mostly youth, riders in the nation are there."
To qualify for the event, local riders competed in the Inland Northwest Freeride League to earn points. Events were held at Whitefish Mountain Resort, Mt. Spokane and 49 Degrees North in Washington, and Schweitzer Mountain in Idaho.
"The top point-getters in the nation get the invites," Knox said.
He said that because the U.S.A Ski Association (USASA) doesn't host freestyle events for skiers, the U.S. Snowboard Association (USSA) been hosting slopestyle and halfpipe events for skiers, as well as snowboarders.
"The U.S. Ski Association doesn't do many freeride events," Knox explained. "Remember in the Olympics, there were only moguls and aerials. Because the USASA is dropping the ball for freeride skiers, USSA has stepped up."
Current members Baylan Connolly and Hayden Eaton represented the local freestyle team at Copper Mountain.
Connolly finished 14th in the boys 14-15-year old boardercross race against 56 competitors. The top-15 performance capped off his successful year on the boardercross circuit — he won all six boardercross events he competed in this year leading up to the national championship.
Hayden took 55th against a stacked field of 70 snowboarders in the 14-15-year old slopestyle event.
"Hayden had probably the toughest division," Knox said. "Slopestyle is the most popular of the disciplines."
Meredith Reed, a former freestyle team member and current Whitefish High School senior, grabbed second place in the ladies 16-18-year old skiers slopestyle event.
Reed tallied a 68.2 on her second run, nearly 31 points better than third place and just five points back of overall winner Katie Turner.
Bailey Eaton, a junior at Whitefish High School and another former member of the freestyle team, took fifth place in the ladies 16-18-year old boardercross race against a field of 30 racers.
Knox said he was really impressed with Bailey's results considering the level of competition she was up against.
Freestyle team coach Danner Pickering took eighth in the Open skier men's division, the strongest of all fields for skiers. He scored a 46.8 on his first run to hold on to a top-10 finish.