The Killington Mountain School (KMS) team traveled to Winter Park, Colorado, on Jan. 25-28 for the U.S. Freestyle selection event. Despite a challenging start to the season, there were strong performances from all of the KMS Freestyle athletes.
Ray Lamlein, Jesse Duda, Manuela Passaretta, and Tyler Damore all finished mid-field in their first ever FIS event, while Brinley Johnson, Jack Patrone, Adam Steifel and Spencer Belsky all qualified for the final round of 16. KMS alumni Ian Beauregard finished on the podium both days. Beauregard then joined former teammates Alex Lewis and Hannah Soar at the Deer Valley World Cup on Feb. 4-6.
While the FIS team was in Colorado, the team in Killington was hard at work building the Highline mogul venue. Highline came together nicely over the weekend, complete with full training courses for both KMS academy athletes as well as KMS/Killington Ski Club development program athletes. The team split this week as FIS athletes headed to Deer Valley, Utah for a FIS Open event while the regional team started its season in Bristol, New York.
Alpine
Alpine racers jumped right into the new year and began training as soon as they could. The U14 group spent much of Christmas and the beginning of the new year working on skill development and focusing on building a strong foundation. The U16 and U19 groups have started racing in Vermont and while it looks a bit different than in the past — everyone reports that races have felt safe and the Killington athletes are skiing fast.
Head U16 women’s coach Chelsea Marshal said, “For the U16 Women, Shelby Graves had a solid first race back at Cochran’s SL [Slalom] with a top 10 finish in sixth place. Chanah Katz made a strong move up starting 93rd to finish the day in 24th.
“The conditions were challenging for the women at the GMVS GS [Giant Slalom] on Jan. 20, with new snow falling and low visibility throughout the morning. We had girls attack from the back making flip second run, strong first runs were had by Megan Bianchi, Eva Young and Chanah Katz. Megan ended the day in 20th, with Eva close behind in 23rd.”
Then, “at Suicide Six this past weekend Shelby Graves had a smoking first run with a fourth place finish. She had a good one going second run but had a mistake that cost her, resulting in a hike,” Marshal said, adding, “Megan Bianchi put two solid runs together with a respectable 17th place finish. Eva Young, starting 70th made a convincing performance to finish 28th for the day. Madelyn Wickless and Eileen Moon also showed improvement by cutting their bib numbers in half.”
Other notable performances from the Alpine team for January include:
James Dougherty, 23rd Burke slalom, 30th Burke slalom
Ben Mckenna, 34th Burke slalom
U19/21 Men
James Ferri, 1st Proctor Slalom,
1st Waterville Valley giant Slalom,
1st Dartmouth Skiway Slalom
Karl Kuus, 3rd Mittersil Slalom,
3rd Dartmouth Skiway
Wyatt Hoffman, 6th Stratton GS,
10th Stratton GS
Ryan Bianchi ,11th Stratton GS,
12th Stratton GS
Cole Matusik, 29th Stratton GS
Musashi Eto, 24th Stratton GS
Freeski and snowboard updates
Results from Slopestyle
at Okemo Jan. 22
Myles King, 3rd (Open Class)
Aidan Herguth, 5th (Open Class)
Owen Ciaglo, 2nd (Menehune)
Emmett Cameron, 4th (Menehune)
Charles Ryder, 5th (Breaker)
Henry Mix, 6th (Breaker)
Evan Tighe, 3rd (Youth)
First ever ski contest!
Ryan Jones, 4th (Youth)
Ari Haddad, 5th (Youth)
Callen Hwang, 2nd (Menehune)
Rocco Jones, 10th (Breaker)
Jamie Hamlin, 5th (Youth)
Lucas Ambler,1st (Junior)
Results from Rail Jam at Jay Peak Jan. 23
Myles King,1st (Open Class)
Aidan Herguth,2nd (Open Class)
Bode Tracy, 1st (age group)
Ryan Jones, 2nd (age group)
Evan Tighe, 3rd (age group)
Henry Mix, 3rd (age group)
Charles Ryder, 4th (age group)
Emmett Cameron, 5th (age group)
Spencer Claffey, 6th (age group)
Callen Hwang, 1st (age group)
Kiara Murph,- 2nd (age group)
Rocco Jones, 2nd (age group)
Eli Kinsler, 3rd (age group)
Jamie Hamlin, 1st (age group)
