10 U.S. athletes take on over 150 Canadians

Recently I returned from a week long event held in Collingwood Canada. It was the K2 (J3) nationals, therefore I was racing against all the best 13-14 year old Canadians.

Many years ago the Eastern Office Jr. development staff made it possible to have several U.S. athletes be guests to the Canadian host in their nationals. This event each year travels around to different regions of Canada. My brother, Ben Morse, was a participant in this event twice and I went as a spectator at the age of nine. I have always looked upon this event as something I wanted to qualify for when I became old enough, because I had so much fun going the first time.

At this event this past week there were large opening ceremonies with a parade starting off the event. I raced my first ever Super Combined race, it consisted of one run of Super G and one run of Slalom. This took place at Osler Bluff which was a very small hill side on the edge of Georgian Bay. In my first Super Combined race ever I placed 4th, and my U.S. team mate Griffen Brown took first place.

Next came the regular Super G which was a pretty short race, because the mountain is so small but I placed 5th in this event and Griffen Brown won again! The GS was at a different mountain called Georgian Peaks. I made a few mistakes this race and didn't place in the top ten, but Griffen Brown pulled through again and won the third race in a row.

The last day was the slalom at Craigleith; I placed 10th in this event and was the second U.S. athlete again behind Griffen who placed 5th. That same night was a dual paneled slalom under the lights.Griffen was placed on the Eastern Canadian team and I was on the western team. Griffen and I faced each other in both runs and I defeated him in both runs. It was just a fun little race which didn't mean anything but everyone was so pumped up to race duals with barge gates (horse gates) that it was a lot of fun.

The event came to an end with a nice closing ceremony with fireworks and everything. I am very greatful to have been able to take part in this event and I thank the head of the Canadian K2 nationals for inviting the U.S. to be competitors in this event.

.)) Sam Morse