The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Making his way in the USSA
It was a one shot deal and Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team (CBMST) athlete Aaron Blunck made the most of it.
This past weekend, Crested Butte Mountain Resort hosted a USSA Junior Olympics qualifier event with three days of action starting with a halfpipe competition on Friday, then a slopestyle on Saturday and an aerials event on Sunday.
Blunck was the lone local representative from Crested Butte, facing off against the masses from the Rocky Mountain Division who were in town for a shot at qualifying for Junior Olympics. The list included Patrick Baskins, a 19-year old from Vail who is about to make the jump to the professional ranks.
“The talent was bigger than we thought it would be,” says CBMST head freestyle coach Woody Lindenmeyr.
Blunck came out of the starting gate with both guns blazing, laying down a nearly flawless performance in his first qualifier halfpipe run.
While Blunck crashed on his second run, officials take the best score of both runs and Blunck dominated his J3 age class, coming in second place overall just behind Baskins.
Blunck went on to finish first in his age class in the finals, punching his ticket to Junior Olympics in the halfpipe.
He repeated the effort the following day in the slopestyle, putting down two clean runs to win his J3 age class again and qualify for Junior Olympics in slopestyle as well. The Junior Olympics will be held in Winter Park March 4-6.
Meanwhile, CBMST athletes Tristan Kraatz and Josie Byron hit the road to compete in a USASA skiercross event in Steamboat Springs.
Skiercross training has been limited for the two athletes but Lindenmeyr and his staff managed to work on some of the finer points of skiercross with the athletes.
“We’ve done some mass start training and practice some hustle moves because the hole shot is everything,” says Lindenmeyr.
Kraatz took fourth place in the finals on Saturday but just missed qualifying out of his heat for the finals on Sunday.
Byron finished fourth on Saturday and took third in the finals on Sunday.
