Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Steamboat Springs will send six Nordic combined athletes to the 2007 Chevrolet USSA Junior Olympic Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined Champ-ionships March 1-3 in Park City, Utah.

Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club Nordic program director Todd Wilson said the Rocky Mountain Division ski jumping and Nordic combined competition committee announced the seven-member J2 junior Olympic team on Sunday.

The list includes 15-year-old Charlie Stoddard, Cliff Field (14), Austin Reed (14), Aleck Gantick (12), Erik Lynch (12) and Jake Barker (12) in addition to Aspen's Michael Ward (14).

"We should be one of the strongest, if not the strongest team there," Wilson said.

Larry Glueck, who serves on the RMD board, said the junior team will compete against teams from the country's four other regional divisions, about 60 total junior athletes.

"Since the J1s go to the North American Junior Championships (early January in Calgary, Alberta), this is really just a J2 competition," Glueck said. "Some younger guys will ski up to the J2 level, although technically, they are the J3 or J4 age."

Since junior Olympic qualification means landing in the top 20 percent of the starting field in two of three events, Wilson was pleased with the strong performances from his skiers at their third and final qualification event of the season, the Visa Winter Series No. 3 competition last Friday and Saturday in Park City.

"I'm happy to see the kids able to compete at the high level they have been training at," Wilson said.

The J2 boys cleaned up the competitive field with Stoddard, Lynch, and Field taking the top three podium spots, respectively, in the Nordic combined scoring.

The Winter Sports Club athletes notched 24 podium finishes in all throughout the junior age divisions and grabbed eight first-place wins.

"It's strong to have that depth at all age classes," Wilson said. "It's not every day you can podium kids in all classes. It's a real credit to the kids and to our coaching staff."

The Nordic combined skiers weren't the only Winter Sports Club athletes to shine. Freestyle snowboarders from the club posted impressive finishes over the weekend at the season's third USSA Chevrolet Revolution Tour event at Spirit Mountain, Minn.

Mick Dierdorff's second-place finish in snowboardcross highlighted the group's efforts. Dierdorff's finish should help him secure a qualifying spot for the 2007 FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships, Winter Sports Club pro/am freestyle coach Spencer Tamblyn said.

While FIS officials recently named Bad Gastein, Austria as the host site for the junior worlds on April 10 to 14, the U.S. team will not be announced until after the final qualifying Revolution Tour event March 2 to 4 in Okemo, Vt.

Tamblyn also mentioned Blake Eddington's riding ability in the halfpipe event. Eddington was the top overall qualifier for the final round of 12, but finished in sixth place. He also took sixth in slopestyle.

Dierdorff and Colin Tucker also advanced to the halfpipe finals while Ariel Tredway made it to the halfpipe finals and took fifth on the girls' side.

- To reach Dave Shively, call 871-4253

or e-mail dshively@steamboatpilot.com