This has been a winter for the record books - the snow just keeps coming and the conditions at Seven Springs have been amazing.Seven Springs had a wild weekend - after most of the Pittsburgh area schools had the week off due to weather conditions Seven Springs kicked off Winter Fest, held the USSA J3 State Ski Racing Derby, hosted Michael Rogan, top PSIA ski instructor and a Packed, Stacked and Jacked Double header - all of this on top of the Presidents Day weekend which happened to coincide with Valentines Day.
There was so much going on that the mountain literally hummed with frenetic energy.
All of the events on the mountain show the enthusiasm of the ski crowd - none more than the back-to-back PSJ freestyle ski and snowboard events. The PSJ weekend started on a high note when Joe Green, our Oakley rep, showed up with basketball t's with bib numbers that the competitors got to keep. The weather caused a slight change of plans for the Oakley Big Hit comp on Saturday and it was shifted to a modified slope style event - everyone of the competitors loved the format so I expect we will see more of this type of set up in next years PSJ events. It was an exciting day and brought out some great new competitors we have not seen in previous PSJ events. The winners for the day were:
Lds Ski:
1st Julia Schwartz
2nd Elle Pappas
3rd Emily Cocco
Lds Snb:
1st Ashley Vander Meer
2nd Shelby Layman
3rd Shannon Branthoover
Men's Ski:
1st James Rullo
2nd Freddy Brideweser
3rd Tyler Pence
Men's Snb:
1st Chuck Lengle
2nd Cory Cissel
3rd Clint Cooper
Day two of the Double header was the make up day for the K2 Big Air comp that was postponed last weekend due to Snowlapalooza. The make up day turned out to be tough - the expert park crew was sent out to do a final evaluation to determine if conditions were safe enough to send competitors over a 70 foot jump. The night before a 30 footer was built in anticipation of the nasty conditions and it proved to be the saving grace of the comp. The light was flat and the snow was heavy but it paid off big for those competitors who hung in there and has proven to be the great leveler in the over-all point spread for the entire Packed, Jacked and Stacked series.
The winners for the K2 Big Air contest include:
Lds Snb:
1st Ashley Vander Meer
2nd Shannon Branthoover
3rd Shelby Layman
Snb Men:
1st Chuck Lengle
2nd Zack Yourd
3rd Chris Poe
Lds Ski:
1st Emily Cocco
Men Ski:
1st Justin Petriko
2nd James Rullo
3rd Jimmy Hill
Now, due to the shortened field competing on Sunday the point spread is far closer now than it was at the end of Saturday's Oakley event. As of now Chuck Lengle is still out front but not as many of his snowboard buddies came out to support him - more skier guys showed up, girl skiers bailed for the most part and girl snowboarders stayed fairly consistent - gaining the girl snowboarders some much needed points.
As of now the over-all standings are as follows:
Chuck Lengle - 90 Points
Justin Petriko - 84 Points
James Rullo - 80 Points
Zack Yourd - 76 Points
At this point in the game Justin and Zack are leading for the 16 and under points and Ashley Vander Meer is leading the ladies with 32 points with Shannon Branthoover close behind with 26!
This tight of a point spread means that Anything can happen at the final Nordica, Monster Energy Drink, Gnu Snowboards wrap-up event on March 13th so it should be very exciting for everyone.
Keep in mind there will be tons of prizes and sponsorships being handed out on that final day as well as the grand, Packed, Stacked and Jacked prize package going to the top skier or snowboard - this years Seven Springs King of the Hill!
See ya on the Slopes!
Kjerstin Klein
Snow Deva
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