The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Nine athletes punch their ticket
By Than Acuff
It actually all started back in the summer for some of the Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team skiers and snowboarders and concludes next week as nine Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team (CBMST) freeride athletes are headed to the IFSA Freeride Championship at Kicking Horse in Canada April 4-8. The event includes riders from South America, the U.S. as well as Canada.
Shiloh Stephenson will represent the CBMST among the u15 snowboarding men, Corbin Buck and Alpine Leonard qualified in the u15 men’s ski category, Phoebe Cahir and Sol Hausdoerffer punched their ticket in the u15 women’s ski event with Brie Polster and Atalaya Hausdoerffer competing among the u19 women skiers and Tucker Pritchett and Brooks Miller will be throwing down among the u19 men skiers.
“We’ve had less, we’ve had more, but it’s been a while since we’ve had more,” says CBMST head freeride coach Mark Robbins.
Stephenson has been on track to make it to the big show with top results all season long and heads into the event ranked fifth overall in the Americas. The same can be said about Sol who is headed in ranked in third place overall and Leonard who put the finishing touches on his season of skiing with a second-place finish at a 2* Regional event in Taos to go with his first-place finish at a 3* National event earlier in the season.
“Alpine and Sol were on track all season,” says Robbins.
Atalaya comes into the championships on a similar track including taking second place at a 3* National event in Alyeska and a second place at a 2* Regional event at Arapahoe Basin.
“She’s been really consistent all season,” says Robbins.
Cahir is one of a host of CBMST athletes that punched their ticket in the final week of qualifying competitions. Cahir set herself up for a solid year when she brought points into the season from a competition in South America last summer when she joined coaches Montana Wiggins and Emma Latta on a trip for local junior athletes. But when she placed second at a Taos 3* National event and first at a 2* Regional event in A Basin in the final week, she sealed the deal.
The same could be said for Polster. Polster was flirting with a spot at champs, but when she won a 3* National event in Telluride, she secured her spot.
Buck was another that got his spot after flirting with the cutoff all season among u15 skiers but punching his way in with a sixth-place finish at a 3* National event in Telluride and a second-place finish at the 2* Regional comp here in Crested Butte. U19 skier Pritchett had a big final week taking second place at a 2* Regional event and seventh at a 3* National event in the final week. Meanwhile, u19 CBMST skier Miller has made it to the big show every year since he started as a u15 skier and will be making his fifth trip to the championships this year.
“He is certainly our most consistent athlete,” says Robbins.
CBMST coaches Grant Spear, Evan Marcus and Tyler Adams and the nine athletes will head to Canada on April 3 for the competition with a couple CBMST athletes in the running for the overall season podium.
“The proof has been in the pudding, we’ll see if it’s also in the poutine,” says Robbins.
