Three time Olympian (and MSA graduate) Kelly Clark climbed to the top of the podium at the 12th Annual Burton European Open Halfpipe Championships on January 15, with a score of 90.37. Clark has now won the Burton Open a total of four times. This win gives her an automatic qualification for the 2012 World Snowboarding Championships to be held next February in Oslo, Norway.
Closer to home, Clark dominated the women’s 22-foot Superpipe competition during the Dew Tour at Killington this weekend. Her first run was the performance to beat – and no one did. She also set an all-time Dew Tour Pipe run record, with a score of 95.75. This big win puts her in second place for the Dew Tour Cup, and in third place for the Over All Rider of the Year Award which will be given by Allied Sports in March. This coming weekend, Clark will compete at the 2011 X-Games in Aspen – Snowmass, Colorado.
The brother and sister team of Chris and Devin Logan (of West Dover and alums of Mount Snow Academy) are also headed for the X-Games. They won their respective slope style finals at Tahoe in The North Face Park and Pipe Series on January 9. In fact, they won on the same pair of skis. Chris broke a ski in practice, and borrowed Devin’s for the finals. As a result of their wins at Tahoe, both Logans secured spots at the 2011 Winter X Games this coming weekend. Probably that special pair of skis will be traveling with them.
At Mount Snow this past weekend, a number of MSA’s current students got into practice at climbing the podium. In the USASA Southern Vermont Series halfpipe competition, Austin Schweyher took first and Wyatt Mosher second among Junior Men (ages 16 and 17), and Chris Abel took third in the Youth category (ages 14 and 15). On the women’s side, Jessica Gibson placed first in the Open Women’s category. The MSA Junior Women (ages 16 and 17) owned the podium, with Erica Biagioni (of the Flex program) in first while team regulars Allie Kaplan and Christina DeJoseph took second and third respectively.
In slopestyle at the same event, Austin Schweyher and Wyatt Mosher took first and second among Junior Men, and Max Lyons took second among Youth Men (ages 14 and 15). Jessica Gibson took the second spot in Open Women’s category. Once again, MSA athletes swept the Junior Women’s division, with Erica Biagioni, Christina DeJoseph, and Allie Kaplan in the one, two and three positions.
The J4 and J5 Alpine skiers headed to Magic Mountain last weekend for giant slalom races. In the J5 (ages 9 and 10) competitions on Saturday, January 22, Hannah Trudeau of the MSA Flex program took the top spot, and teammate Donovan Ross picked up seventh. Sunday was the turn for the J4s (ages 11 and 12). William Trudeau of the Flex program took first, and MSA regular Brendan Schoff came in ninth. Among the J4 women, Emily Fryer took third.