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BEAVER CREEK, Colorado — The slalom in a J3 Junior Olympics has a certain finality to it.
For second-year J3 racers, who are generally the contenders, it's the last chance, the last JO race of their careers, and for most, the lone-remaining ticket to the Whistler (British Columbia) Cup.
Zak Kjos of Apex (Minneapolis) won Wednesday's J3 JO boys slalom at Beaver Creek, earning his ticket to Whistler, while Ski and Snowboard Club Vail's Alex Leever came up just short of his Canadian dreams with an improbable comeback, taking silver. Jack Post of Buck Hill (Burnsville, Minn.) rounded out the podium.
“It feels awesome,” Kjos said. “I've been waiting for this forever. It's a huge accomplishment. I lost a tiebreaker as a first-year J4, and it's good to be able to finally go.”
Kjos held the first-run lead with a time of 40.05 seconds and clocked the same number in the second, but Leever overcame a first-run error, and nearly snagged gold with the fastest run of the day with an afternoon time of 39.13.
“So close,” Leever said. “I made a huge mistake first run and I felt like maybe, maybe I could catch up. But it wasn't quite enough. (Kjos)'s a good slalom skier. But I'm still really glad I made it on the medal stand.”
Kjos, who actually hails from La Crosse, Wis., but races for Apex, won bronze in Sunday's super-G and was in the top 10 in Tuesday's giant slalom. This was the icing on the cake, though.
He had a 1.2-second lead over Post after the first run, and as it turned out more importantly, 1.68 margin on Leever, going into the flip. Kjos trained at Beaver Creek's Bear Trap on Monday, a day off for the boys, to get a feel for the hill.
“I wanted to have a solid second run, just maintain my lead, just put it on cruise control,” Kjos said. “I trained here on our day off on Monday. That helped me a lot. I knew it's flat up top and it comes in steeper sections. The terrain, we picked that out a lot in the training day.”
Leever made a critical mistake in the middle of the pitch during his first run, boot-topping a gate, losing precious time. He was eighth after the first run.
“I used that anger from the first run to go,” Leever said. “People at the start probably said that I yelled out of the start and went all out.”
Leever stomped his second run, racing 23rd in the afternoon, and as his fellow competitors came down after him, it looked for a while as he might have mounted a comeback.
For Leever, though, merely competing this week was quite a comeback. He suffered a right tibia-plateau fracture six weeks ago in Steamboat Springs, and could not put any weight on his leg.
Leever just got back on snow two Mondays ago to get ready for the JOs. And as the racing started, the ninth-grader from the Vail Mountain School got his groove back in a big way. After 19th in the downhill, Leever was fourth in the super-G, sixth in the GS and second Wednesday.
“It would have been great to make Whistler, but it's not the end,” Leever said. “Next year is J2s and FIS races. That's when the competition really starts.”
Post is off to J2s and he'll have a souvenir from this week in Colorado.
“It's great,” he said. “I just love the fact that I'm out here with all these great competitors. I gave it my all and so did everyone else.”
And with his medal, score another one for the Central Region and Post's Buck Hill. The Central picked up nine medals this year at JOs, including half of the gold medals (four). Buck Hill ended up second in the medal count with four, only behind Aspen's eight.
Buck Hill's Connor Croasdale took fourth followed by Kyle Koseck of Boyne, Mich. Aspen's Colby Lane and Steamboat Springs's Alex Barounos went sixth and seventh, respectively. Taos, N.M.'s Nicolas Veth picked up the overall boys title for the week with an eighth-place finish. SSCV's Nick Santaniello popped into ninth and Buck Hill's Bradford Morrison ended up 10th.
Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934 or cfreud@vaildaily.com.
For second-year J3 racers, who are generally the contenders, it's the last chance, the last JO race of their careers, and for most, the lone-remaining ticket to the Whistler (British Columbia) Cup.
Zak Kjos of Apex (Minneapolis) won Wednesday's J3 JO boys slalom at Beaver Creek, earning his ticket to Whistler, while Ski and Snowboard Club Vail's Alex Leever came up just short of his Canadian dreams with an improbable comeback, taking silver. Jack Post of Buck Hill (Burnsville, Minn.) rounded out the podium.
“It feels awesome,” Kjos said. “I've been waiting for this forever. It's a huge accomplishment. I lost a tiebreaker as a first-year J4, and it's good to be able to finally go.”
Kjos held the first-run lead with a time of 40.05 seconds and clocked the same number in the second, but Leever overcame a first-run error, and nearly snagged gold with the fastest run of the day with an afternoon time of 39.13.
“So close,” Leever said. “I made a huge mistake first run and I felt like maybe, maybe I could catch up. But it wasn't quite enough. (Kjos)'s a good slalom skier. But I'm still really glad I made it on the medal stand.”
Kjos, who actually hails from La Crosse, Wis., but races for Apex, won bronze in Sunday's super-G and was in the top 10 in Tuesday's giant slalom. This was the icing on the cake, though.
He had a 1.2-second lead over Post after the first run, and as it turned out more importantly, 1.68 margin on Leever, going into the flip. Kjos trained at Beaver Creek's Bear Trap on Monday, a day off for the boys, to get a feel for the hill.
“I wanted to have a solid second run, just maintain my lead, just put it on cruise control,” Kjos said. “I trained here on our day off on Monday. That helped me a lot. I knew it's flat up top and it comes in steeper sections. The terrain, we picked that out a lot in the training day.”
Leever made a critical mistake in the middle of the pitch during his first run, boot-topping a gate, losing precious time. He was eighth after the first run.
“I used that anger from the first run to go,” Leever said. “People at the start probably said that I yelled out of the start and went all out.”
Leever stomped his second run, racing 23rd in the afternoon, and as his fellow competitors came down after him, it looked for a while as he might have mounted a comeback.
For Leever, though, merely competing this week was quite a comeback. He suffered a right tibia-plateau fracture six weeks ago in Steamboat Springs, and could not put any weight on his leg.
Leever just got back on snow two Mondays ago to get ready for the JOs. And as the racing started, the ninth-grader from the Vail Mountain School got his groove back in a big way. After 19th in the downhill, Leever was fourth in the super-G, sixth in the GS and second Wednesday.
“It would have been great to make Whistler, but it's not the end,” Leever said. “Next year is J2s and FIS races. That's when the competition really starts.”
Post is off to J2s and he'll have a souvenir from this week in Colorado.
“It's great,” he said. “I just love the fact that I'm out here with all these great competitors. I gave it my all and so did everyone else.”
And with his medal, score another one for the Central Region and Post's Buck Hill. The Central picked up nine medals this year at JOs, including half of the gold medals (four). Buck Hill ended up second in the medal count with four, only behind Aspen's eight.
Buck Hill's Connor Croasdale took fourth followed by Kyle Koseck of Boyne, Mich. Aspen's Colby Lane and Steamboat Springs's Alex Barounos went sixth and seventh, respectively. Taos, N.M.'s Nicolas Veth picked up the overall boys title for the week with an eighth-place finish. SSCV's Nick Santaniello popped into ninth and Buck Hill's Bradford Morrison ended up 10th.
Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934 or cfreud@vaildaily.com.
