Taos Winter Sports Team throws down in Copper
Seven Taos Winter Sports Team athletes in the 12-14 and 15-18 age groups competed at the International Freeskiers and Snowboarders Association National Tour held at Copper Mountain from TuesdayFriday (Feb. 7-10).
Stolle Wannamaker, Ian McLean, Grey Elsasser and Dusty Elsasser competed on Tuesday in the 12-14 age group. Corrina Harrower, Andre Ortega and Quentin Rebholtz competed in the 15-18 age group on Wednesday. Over 200 athletes competed in the qualification round, but only a fraction would qualify for the finals.
Wannamaker, McLean, Elsasser, Harrower, Ortega and Rebholtz made the cut into this elusive group, moving into the final round held on Friday, but the match was postponed by one day because of weather and safety concerns.
McLean and Harrower both crashed on their final run, taking them out of contention. A couple of big controlled airs followed by a big tree jump gave Elsasser a top-3 finish in the 12-14 age group. Ortega skied a fast and big line down the slopes to take fifth place in the 15-18-year-old category. Wannamaker finished in ninth place for the girls 12-14 age group and Harrower finished in 10th place for the girls 15-18 age group.
“We had a couple of athletes who had never competed in a national competition, so we were not sure what our expectations should be; however, after having six out of seven athletes qualify for finals, we can say we are a force to be reckoned with. This might have been the strongest showings TWST freeride has ever had in a national competition,” said TWST coach Andrea Krejci.
The next competition for the TWST will be the IFSA Jr. Regional at Crested Butte on Thursday (Feb. 16).