SRD Team racer Ben Morse made it a perfect two for two with a come-from-behind slalom effort as the J2 National Championship, the Junior Olympics for 15 and 16 year olds, restarted at Aspen, Colo., after a snowstorm.
With 15 inches of new snow overnight the original schedule was scrapped, the slaloms moved up and the more difficult to prepare for super G's were pushed to the end of the week. While it meant getting out the short skis a little sooner than anticipated it didn't seem to bother either Morse.
Being left about nine tenths out of the hunt after the first run, Morse, the downhill winner on Monday, turned on the afterburners in the second heat.
"It was a difficult set and conditions with the new snow were challenging," Morse said. "Some of the turns got a little dished out, but I manage to squeek through."
Squeek might not be the right word. Morse was 1.28 seconds ahead of the field in the second run and won by about three-tenths, but he's pretty sure he didn't get any style points.
"Everybody was kind of scrambling," Morse said, adding that some of the course scraped down to "to the hard stuff," and parts of it didn't. "I felt I was wild and all over the place, but I guess it was fast." He said having two gold medals in two races was surreal. The downhill hadn't really sunk in yet." But also said he expected to be in contention in the GS and super G races still on the docket.
Bryce Bennett got second behind Morse." Bryce Bennett of Squaw put down a really nice run," said Morse," and Kieffer and I both charged the second run and I managed to finish." Kieffer Christiansen, second after the first run, did not finish.
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