I finally caught up with school work so now I can write my blog. This year the Rocky/Central Junior Championships were held in Aspen, my hometown, which was amazing. It was the first really big race that I have had at home and the top five Rocky qualifiers were all from the Aspen Valley Ski Club (AVSC). The first event was downhill. I used 208 Super G skis for the first run and got 6th place. Then I decided to try a pair of 210 downhill skis for the second training run. Unfortunately, I lost a ski and ended up in the B-net. The next day was the Downhill, and I definitely decided to return to the Super G skis. I think I was a little shook-up and ended up in 13th.
I wasn’t focusing on making Whistler at this point. My goal was to improve as the week went on. After a disappointing Downhill result, I was looking forward to the Super G. I placed 6th and the AVSC took the top six places. At least I was moving in the right direction. I was excited for the GS because I have been skiing GS really well all season and felt like I had a good shot at making the podium. My teammate, Colby Lane, picked #1 and I picked #3. We both like low numbers so we can lay down solid runs and put the pressure on the rest of the field. AVSC doesn’t train on Javelin very much but I wish we would because, I agree with what Colin Vogel said, Javelin is a fantastic GS hill. My first run felt solid and I was in 2nd behind Colby. We ran flip-30 so I ran 29th. I had one small mistake but felt like it was good enough. AVSC swept the podium; Colby in first, me in second, and Ben Throm in third.
We had the next day off. While I was taking a few slalom training runs, my SRD teammate, Serina Kidd, took silver in the women’s GS. The final day was the Slalom and my last chance to make Whistler. Having podiumed in the GS, I felt confident. Even though we train at Highlands all the time, I had never run Slalom on this part of the hill. It was a tricky set but I felt ready. A lot of kids had trouble in the first run, but I skied one of my best Slalom runs ever and was in first over my teammate, Travis Lundin, by over two seconds. Approaching the second run was difficult because I knew I had a great chance to win and Whistler was on the line. I was pretty nervous and skied a bit conservatively but still won by over two seconds.
So I finished my week with enough points to be 2nd in the overall and qualified for Whistler Cup. I am excited to accompany my three SRD teammates and three AVSC teammates to Whistler and I can’t wait to go and represent the USA and SRD.
.)) Andrew Hancock
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