From the Bennington Banner 1/21/2010:
ZACH KULPA
Posted: 01/20/2010 11:04:28 PM EST
PERU -- In an attempt to widen the horizons of provocative competition, the Burr and Burton Academy snowboarding team hosted an exhibition snowboardcross race at Bromley Mountain on Wednesday.
The Vermont Principals' Association currently sanctions snowboarding as a varsity sport in three disciplines: halfpipe, slopestyle and giant slalom. Many of Vermont's high school snowboarding coaches and athletes want boardercross to be encompassed within VPA competition.
"We're trying to get [SBX] included in the VPA's program," BBA head coach Amy Herrmann said. "We ran this exhibition event today to prove that we can do it efficiently and safely.
"It's just a matter of showing that it can be done, but this is truly a great sport and the kids had an absolute blast out there today."
The VPA's biggest concern in possibly adding SBX to the event list is always the student athletes' safety, according to Herrman. In snowboardcross, four competitors start in a pack from the top of a course and race against each other over rolling terrain and a series of jumps and ramps.
"This is an awesome event, and the kids are definitely pumped to compete in something different," Twin Valley coach Christine Abraham said. "The VPA would be wary of including this discipline due to safety concerns, there is the possibility of contact when the kids are racing together in heats. But we make a point to talk with all of the racers about not making intentional contact while on the
course."Boardercross has been a staple in the Winter X-Games for many years now, and the event will also be contested at the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver for the second time after its debut at the 2006 Torino Games.
"This is a great way to have some diversity in competition," BBA senior Morgan Lendway said. "Slope style and pipe and GS are fun and competitive, but boardercross is a great way to get your adrenaline going against other racers on the same course in a single run."
Wednesday's racing at Bromley began with time trials, as each competitor independently ripped down the course to rank the entire field according to the times.
Finishing first in the time trials on the boys side was Rutland's Adam Hough in 38.20, followed by Black River's Cody Fortuna (second, 38.69) and BBA junior Charlie Kepler (third, 38.89). Additional BBA finishers included Cruz Cornell (14th, 39.84), Casey Komline (17th, 40.17), Francis Miles (20th, 40.83), Steve Mull (21st, 41.04), Eric Smith (22nd, 41.13), Jonathan Karhu (28th, 42.53), Connor Allen (36th, 43.56) and Shane Fuller (41st, 44.41).
Fred Pickering was the highest ranked Arlington Memorial High School rider at 25th in 41.96, followed by Eric Peterson (35th, 43.49).
Lendway led the way in the girls race in 40.35, followed by Twin Valley's Desiree Mack (42.57) in second and Green Mountain's Lilly Calabrese (42.68) in third. Also completing the course from BBA included Leah Wulfman (seventh, 44.35), Paige Emond (eighth, 44.54), Katie McDonald (10th, 45.63) and Chelsea Nunn (18th, 55.07).
AMHS rider Beth Horton finished 12th in 47.02, while Keelan Pike (1:05.23) ended up in 20th.
After the time trials, racers were placed into exhibition heats to test run the safety and functionality of four competitors on the course at once, and things went over well with riders.
"It was a lot of fun out there on a perfect day," Kepler said. "I've never been on the course in actual race conditins before, so it was pretty exciting pushing out of the gates and racing against other guys on the same course. Hopefully, we can get this going as an actual event next season."
After a couple of warm days during the past week, temperatures fell below freezing on Wednesday, and the SBX course was blanketed with a thick coating of fresh snow throughout the day.
"Everyone was really looking forward to actually racing SBX," Mull said. "As far as high school snowboarding history in Vermont goes, this has never happened. It's something that we all want to do regularly."