SSCV maneuvers the moguls at Freestyle Junior Nationals in Utah Olympic Park
Club sends 14 skiers to premiere championship
Stephanie Koller/Courtesy photo
High-level young freestyle athletes traveled to Utah’s Olympic Park for the Freestyle Junior Nationals in mid-March. SSCV made impressive runs, jumps and maneuvers through the moguls over the two days of competition.
The Freestyle Junior Nationals is a qualifying event in which younger freestyle athletes have the opportunity to compete against the nation’s top younger mogul athletes. The competition consisted of boy’s open moguls on March 18 and girl’s open moguls on March 19. A duals moguls competition followed on March 20.
Jiah Cohen
Oliver Smith
Jameson Kust
Caden McCormick
T.J. Soulakis
Ryan Stockton
Luke Weiler
Reese Chapdelaine
Kaiya Torres
Mahlia Torres
Ava Keenan
Cali Carr
Elle Keenan
Eliana Carr
“SSCV had a strong showing at Junior Nationals,” said John Dowling, SSCV mogul program director.
“The field was deep with 90 women and almost 100 men on the start list.”
Jiah Cohen led three SSCV men into the overall top 10 with a second place podium behind Killington’s Jack Petrone. Oliver Smith bumped up to eighth after qualifying in 13th. Jameson Kust rallied to ninth with “aggressive skiing and a pinned out back full on the top air,” according to Dowling.
Support Local Journalism
Caden McCormick shredded both his qualifying runs to land on the U15 podium in third and 27th overall. Also in the U15, Riley Hughes and Simon Cope put down two clean runs for 53rd and 62nd. T.J. Soulakis, Ryan Stockton and Luke Weiler landed in 73rd, 77th and 87th respectively.
In the women’s competition, Reese Chapdelaine, Kaiya Torres and Mahlia Torres all cracked the 20-skier final.
“Chapdelaine put together a decent run for the final but struggled with airs on the low angle pitch for 14th overall,” Dowling described.
Kaiya Torres linked a 360-iron-cross-to-360 for 15th. U13 Mahlia Torres flashed impeccable turns for the age class win as the sole U13 in the top-20 final and 18th overall. Ava Keenan came back from a mid-season injury to join Torres on the U13 podium with third place. Cali Carr came in 36th, Elle Keena 50th and Eliana Carr 79th.
“For Ava, Elle and Eliana it was their first trip to Junior Nationals and their first exposure to such a deep field.” Dowling stated.
