Morning Star Staff
Silver Star Freestyle Club athletes rang up 24 medals, including nine gold, in the first of three stops in the BC Freestyle Provincial Timber Tour/Super Youth Competitions last weekend at Apex Mountain in Penticton.
Under beautiful skies, the Vernon kids hucked big air, threw down some serious slopestyle runs and were unbelievable in the moguls.
In the U18’s, Max Fenn was first in Big Air with his sweet Switch 9 followed closely by Hayden Broderick showing off his mad park skills nailing his Rodeo 5 and placing second. Landon Gordon cranked out a killer slope run landing him second for U18s.
Have you ever heard of a Rodeo 9? That’s how Sterling Peters won the U16 category in Big Air. His buddy Liam Westermann pulled off unbelievable runs through the park in Slope and Big Air where he spun a Bio 9 to give him a double silver finish.
Liam Collyer had all eyes when he threw down a 3rd place finish with a Bio 7 truck driver in the slope course. Nicholas Suchy wore an oven mitt over his wrist cast to pull off a 5th place finish on the Slope course, but it was his Switch Rodeo 10 at Big Air that caught the crowd’s attention. U14 Timber Tour athlete Caden Danbrook placed fifth in both Slope and Big Air spinning a Cork 7.
Jamie Rykuiter in the U16 category, originally from Silver Star but now skiing with the B.C. Development Mogul Team, pulled out a runner-up finish with her spins off the mogul jumps.
The Silver Star boys pulled off a clean sweep on the podium in each event of the U14 age category. Jarvis Jurome took home one of each colour striking gold in Big Air, silver in Moguls and bronze in Slopestyle, while good friend Alex Collyer rocked the stage with two gold medals in Slopestyle and Moguls and a bronze in Big Air.
The third in the winning trio was Evan Bush, taking home two silver medals in Slopestyle and Big Air and a bronze in Moguls. Keaton Dick was close behind with a fourth in Moguls and fifth in Big Air and Slope. Jordan MacDonald owned the podium with a first in all three girls U14 comps.
A gold medal now hangs around Mason Land’s neck for stomping his 540 in Slopestyle for the U12 boys. The same goes for Alex Sewell, who pulled off a sick 360 in his U10 Slopestyle run.
In their first competition, Mason Swanson and Anderson Bicknell upset the veterans by stealing second- and fourth-place positions, respectively in the U10 Big Air. Mason Swanson went on to take fourth in Moguls to start his freestyle ski medal collection.
Keeping it all in the family, although different age categories, the silver spotlight was on Hayden and Liam Person. Hayden, a U16 from Silver Star, now skis with the B.C. Moguls Team. Hayden and his younger brother Liam U10 dominated the mogul field.
“There was so much action in just a few days it was hard to keep track of it all,” said Vernon club president Nicole Bush. “We would like to thank the parents and give them all honourable mention for volunteering through the weekend. They seemed to be working equally as hard on the hill as they were on the dance floor boogeying to Vernon’s Young ‘Uns. It was a good time had by all.
“January’s a big month, still to come, the freeski team is off to Whitewater in Nelson for the Junior Smith Optic Freeski Open and the freestyle gang is heading to Whistler for the second Timber Tour/Super Youth stop.”