By Polly Lynn
KILLINGTON — On Saturday, April 11, the annual Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge took place on Outer Limits at Killington Resort. This year, the qualifying run and finals both took place on Saturday, rather than spanning the weekend, perhaps for the enjoyment of the fans who set up elaborate “tailgate” parties on the slope.
The purpose of the Mogul Challenge is “to recognize technical superiority and athletic ability,” according to Killington Resort. Males and females competitors were scored separately by age group. A split scoring system was used by the panel of judges to evaluate each competitor’s mogul skiing with a 100 point maximum score broken into three basic components as follows:
Turns and Line: 60 percent. Quality and variety of well-executed turns while staying as close as possible to the fall line. Air: 20 percent. Quality of upright aerial maneuvers executed spontaneously in the fall line. Inverts are strictly prohibited. Speed: 20 percent. Speed score will be based on a male and female pacesetter’s time.
The overall top 32 men and 16 women moved onto finals, which were run in dual format with the winner of each dual advancing to the next round until a winner is crowned.
Awards were then presented to first through fourth place overall male and female competitors, who will also get their names engraved on the Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge trophy.
Results per age category
13 & under — Male: Nate Robertson. Female: Rachel Setareh
14-20 — Male: Rex Cox. Female: Alana Ricci
21-34 — Male: Ryan Brewster. Female: Sammie Sofer
35-49 — Male: Michael Beauregard. Female: Andrea Labarbara
50+ — Male: Jeff Carey. Female: Nicole Levesque
Top overall
1st — Male: PJ Ricci. Female: Sammie Sofer
2nd — Male: Michael Beauregard. Female: Sharon Maloney
3rd — Male: Kirk Sisson. Female: Andrea Labarbara
4th — Male: Brian Keefe. Female: Nicole Levesque
Photos by Jerry LeBlond
