The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Hildebrandt and Schwartz lead the way
by Will Dujardin/westelkproject.com
Six local junior freeriders wrapped up their competition season last weekend at the IFSA Junior North American Championships in Whistler, British Columbia. Dagan Schwartz, Carson Hildebrandt, Kye Matlock, Turner Petersen and Jon Clay Patterson from the Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team (CBMST) and local independent Brooks Hudson all made the cut to the prestigious event to match up against the top 15 percent of the total IFSA Junior field from the 2015-2016 season.
While being the championship event, it also serves as the culmination of the season where the overall champions and rankings are settled. The CBMST was represented well as skier Carson Hildebrandt finished in fifth at the event out of 44 athletes and fifth in the overall rankings out of 386 athletes while snowboarder Dagan Schwartz took second at the event out of six riders and second overall out of 27 in the 12-14 year old division.
The younger athletes took on a slushy venue on Thursday, April 7 and Dagan Schwartz was the fourth overall athlete out of the gate. He was tied with Nathan Bromley of Truckee, CA for the overall lead in the 12-14 snowboard boys division before the event and laid down a great run to finish second on the day behind Bromley out of six athletes. Dagan’s strong top air and dicing of the middle “Oreo Cookie” section was almost marred by a quick hiccup but he held it together and stomped his bottom air.
Kye Matlock started off the CBMST action in the 12-14 ski boys after local Brooks Hudson, sitting in fifth overall in the division, had an unfortunate wash out on his bottom air, eliminating Brooks from finals contention. Kye’s run showcased his aggressive, angulated style with three strong airs with a couple popular hip jumps in between to finish 11th on the day.
Carson Hildebrandt, sitting just behind Brooks Hudson in sixth overall in the division, followed up later in the action with a similar line choice to Kye’s and finished in 14th right ahead of his fellow Rocky Mountain Region and Team Summit friend, Tanner Moller. The judges and event organizers made tight cuts and they only took 15 of the 44 athletes due to the snow conditions for the finals.
Turner Petersen and Jon Clay Patterson had some super stiff competition in the 15-18 ski men division on Friday, April 8. They both had strong, aggressive runs going. Turner had an impressive double through the Oreo Cookie section while Clay singled a large section of area. Unfortunately, both fell victim to going bigger than expected on a large bottom air transition gap that was getting hit throughout the day towards the end of the venue.
The finals went down on Saturday, April 9 in surprisingly hard conditions despite the warm temps and bluebird sunshine. The venue was extended further down into Diamond Bowl with a big wide open section and big wave/cornice feature towards the bottom skier’s right of the venue. Dagan Schwartz was able to clean up his run and switched up his bottom feature so that he could stomp a quick three on a wind lip before cruising to the finish. It wasn’t enough to catch up to Nathan Bromley, however, and the boys finished 1 and 2 in the overall IFSA Snowboard boy’s rankings as well.
The skiing in the 12-14 was not as consistent as the day one results as more athletes were “going for it” out of the 15 that made finals. Carson Hildebrandt was second to drop in the division and threw down a super solid, clean run including his top features from day one while adding a fun gap feature before doing a double on the “North Shore Wave” feature into the finish line. The run was good enough to catapult Carson from 14th to fifth, putting him in good position to move up to fifth in the overall rankings for the 12-14 ski boys. Kye Matlock laid down a good run but was bucked by a little air between the bottom gap and the wave, just holding on to stay on his feet before hitting the double to move up a spot to 10th as other athletes faltered.
This event served as an awesome culmination to the long IFSA junior season. Whistler Blackcomb hosted a great event and the judges were super stoked on the quality of the decision making, skiing, and riding. The weather was awesome for the event and everyone was pleased to end the season on such a high note.
The CBMST will be training hard this summer biking and thinking about next season’s turns. A big thanks goes out to the Crested Butte Community School, the Crested Butte Snowsports Foundation, and Crested Butte Mountain Resort. See you next season!
