GMVS was well represented at the U.S. Junior Alpine Championships with 5 boys and 3 girls competing for junior national crowns. Athletes Moro Bamber PG ’19, Rowen Ainslie ’20, Ryan Beardsley ’20, Sebastian Segre ’21, Nevin Vilandrie ’20, Charlotte Maurer PG, Lydia Riddell ’20, Samantha Trudeau ’20 were joined by coaches Matteo Bassi and Charlie Powell.
The events held in Snowbasin (site of the 2002 Olympics) were SG/GS/SL followed by another GS and SL for the boys and two slaloms at Snowbird for the girls.
The National Junior Championships has all of the best juniors from across the three U.S. Ski & Snowboard regions competing against each other. Many of the top juniors at the event are members of the U.S. Ski Team. A big part of the competition is the Regions Cup, given to the region with the most points after all of the events.
GMVS sent a fairly young team to the championships. Many of our athletes still have two or three years as a Junior Competitor. Against a strong field, Nevin Vilandrie placed 20th in the SG. Lydia Riddell placed 3rd in the Women’s Giant Slalom (1st 2 places were USST Members) with Charlotte Maurer in 15th. The boys had a bit of a rough go in the GS with some top 10 results in the first run and dnf’s in run 2. In the boys slalom, Rowen had a good finish in 16th place starting 40th. Charlotte finished in 16th in the slalom. In the National Performance series that followed the National Junior Championships, Rowen finished 11th in the slalom and Moro finished 12th. The girls had 2 Slaloms after the NJC. Charlotte finished 5th and 3rd in the first SL and 12th in the second SL.
It was a great race series for the boys and girls to be able to compete against the best of the regions and the USST Juniors. It gives them a good gauge of where they stand and where they need to go. The coaches were very encouraged by the skiing and some of the results they came home with.