The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“Everyone skied very, very well under the high pressure
circumstances”
The Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team (CBMST) skier cross season came to a close on Tuesday, April 7 at the USASA Nationals in Copper, Colo. CBMST qualified 13 athletes to Nationals through points tallied in the Southwest Colorado Series held here in Crested Butte (two cross races) and Powderhorn (one cross race) and one CBMST athlete, Aksel Lindenmeyr, closed the regular season ranked number one in the nation.
The track at Copper was on a new location on the mountain above the half-pipe off the American Flyer chair. The course build was very challenging out of the start, as the athletes faced off with two large wu tangs, which are quarter pipe features that the athlete needs to get over without catching too much air.
“I have seen these obstacles commonly used on cross courses, but this is the first time in 13 years of coaching the sport that I have seen such large [10-foot] wu tangs, and never back-to-back like this,” says CBMST coach Woody Lindenmeyr.
These features, while manageable for a snowboarder to navigate at slower speeds, proved troublesome for skiers traveling at higher speeds to absorb the second one. This was particularly the case for Alex Weinberg, who face planted off the second wu tang in warm-up runs and was out for the day. The feature would prove similarly fateful for at least four other athletes over the course of the day.
After time trials, timed solo runs for heat seeding, the brackets were formed and racing was heated right off the bat. Meadow Vaughn showed her competitive spirit and skied to a second place finish in the 9 and under girls. Rhodes Moffet had the fight of the day as he crashed in the time trial and was instantly in a do-or-die situation: If he didn’t win his first heat he was out. He stepped up and did what needed to be done to crack the top ten out of the 31 athletes in the 9 and under category, finishing in seventh overall.
Aksel had his foot on the gas all day and skied himself into his first National Champion title, also in the 9 and under class. Asher Weinberg and Brooks Hudson had some super-stiff competition in the 10 to 12-year-old field of 61 competitors and gave it their best. Skiing very well, Brooks and Asher took a commendable seventh and eighth, respectively.
“Everyone skied very, very well under the high pressure circumstances,” says Lindenmeyr. “Doug and I were very proud of what our athletes were able to accomplish here today.”
Local Results
9 and Under Skier Girls
Meadow Vaughn 2nd
Alexandra Weinberg DNS
(injury during practice)
9 and Under Skier Boys
Aksel Lindenmeyr 1st
Julian Arthur 4th
Rhodes Moffett 7th
Tor Henrik Hudson 10th
Enzo Napoli 11th
Devin Lindenmeyr 21st
Mason Weitman 27th
10-12 Skier Boys
Brooks Hudson 7th
Asher Weinberg 8th
Cooper Wight 34th
