No Kidding! Serina dominates Junior Olympics!

HEY SRD!!! I haven't blogged in a while because I've been really training hard for the jo's and for Whistler Cup! My season has been great so far I couldn't of asked for a better season or better coaches. My coaches have really brought my far this year on the hill and mentally.

I went into the 2nd part of our jo qualifiers tied for first! The first day was sl and I was feeling pretty confident and just relaxed and laid down a good solid first run. On the second run I was in first and got a little stressed out like every racer but my coach told me to just have fun, so I went and had a blast, got a little late but still laid down a really good consistent run. By the end of the day I was in first for the overall but barely although there was still GS.

On the morning of the GS race I felt a little bit off my game but nothing that couldn't be fixed. When it came time to start I felt fine, but I didn't feel like my self by the time I got into the course my GS was okay at the top of the course and I was just happy to of made it down that far! Although as i came to the bottom of my run I approached the GORILLA turn and unfortunately got back and late causing me to lean in.. and fall.

After falling i was really ready to lay down a strong second run. I had a great second race, when I came down I was in first but little did I know that Katy Harris killed it and came down right after me only 7 hundredths in front of me! But that was okay because we were more than 2.5 seconds ahead of 3rd place:) At the end of the weekend I was pretty happy with my results and ended up second overall and qualifying in the first seed!

After Jo qualifiers i trained really hard, and really worked on a lot of my fundamentals!

When jo's finally came around the corner I was really excited! It was a good 3 hour drive down to Aspen so it gave me a lot of time to work on my homework. In Aspen we were staying at the Aspen Inn right at the base of the mountain which was really cool because all we had to do was put our skis on and we were right there at the lift!

At the first training day of the DH I was in 2nd, and the second training day of the DH I was in 4th. When it came the night before race day we had bib draw and I picked the latest of all the girls 30th, unfortunately I didn't have a very strong race run and finished 11th. But I kept my head up and was ready for the SG.

Once again we had bib draw for the SG and I picked bib 21! I was very nervous having to wait so long like the DH and have to hear everyones results but I stayed focused and had a fairly good run. I finished the SG run in 3rd only 12 hundredths off of first, and now the pressure was on to qualify for Whistler.

Later that night we had our parade and bib draw which was really exciting because I picked my lucky number 8 for the GS!! The following day was the boys GS race and they killed it especially my SRD teammate Andrew Hancock fishing in second place. My first run I had trouble and had to scramble for the finish but ended up third 94 hundredths out of first. I was really stressing out that I couldn't make up a second but I just went out there and skied how I knew how to ski, problem was I didn't get the second that I need only 8 tenths, so I finished second by 22 hundredths! Talk about pressure! Its worse now, only have SL to qualify for Whistler and the central girls are always tough! MY LAST CHANCE! I laid down a sold first run and stood in 3rd 2 tenths out. Thats a margin I can live with. I love to come from behind! My second run needed to be solid but fast and with out mistakes. It worked and I won the second run by 86 hundredths taking the SL by 1.65 total. And on the men's side another SRD teammate Andrew Hancock owned the mens SL winning by 2.3 seconds!! WHISTLER HERE WE COME!

But before I leave for whistler I've got to make a stop in Telluride to sew up the Smartwool Championships as I have the lead by 41 points! Then off to Whistler. I can't wait this is going to be an awesome US team and an experience of a life time:)

.)) Serina Kidd

Morse Code: Off to Whistler Cup

Photo: Eli Swing and Sam Morse at the Eastern JO's

Heading to Whistler!

Over the past week the east has had its J3 Eastern Regional Championships at Okemo. The series got pushed back due to a day of rain. We relaxed and prepared for the upcoming races. The first day was the slalom. I was in the lead after the first run. Second run I had a bobble and got bumped back into 4th place overall. The next day was the GS. After the first run Ryan Mooney was in the lead by 1.3 seconds.

Second run I charged ahead and won that run by 2 seconds taking the win by .7 seconds. That night was a delightful banquet at the base of Okemo mountain. I was awarded the Gold Medal and was on my way Whistler. The last day was the Super-G. It was really odd weather that day with fog at the top and clear skies at the finish. I charged out of the gate and went for it. I executed my plan over the two jumps and took the victory over Ryan Mooney by .7 seconds.

It was a great series to have taken 3 gold medals-GS, Super-G and the Overall. The Eastern team heading to Whistler includes: Sam Morse, Ryan Mooney, Alec Sullivan, Czari Cochran (fellow CVA student), Mikala Smith and Danielle Brownell-Patty. We hope to represent the East and the United State well as we travel out to Whistler.

.)) Sam Morse

Rough JO's from Kazui

Not the best season you could ask for, but overall it turned out to be fun and I got to train a lot more since I came to Stratton Mountain School. JO's at Okemo wasn't the best preformed race that I could have had this year with a DNF in both GS and SL and a DNS in SG due to the ankle injury from the crash at the GS. I was blown away by the level of performance that all the guys brought, especially my own SRD teammate Sam Morse that threw down the GS and SG. And without a mistake in the 2nd run of SL, I'm sure he could have taken home the Gold too. And also Eli Swing taking home the Gold at Eastern Finals. It was a bummer, but I did get to face some tough competition this season.

I got into my first USSA spring series race Saturday at Okemo. I fell and messed up a bunch of times on my first run and ended up in 56th, but the second run I put together a 21st place run starting all the way back. I know I could've done better, but it was a good experience getting to see some really good racers. The past two days Stratton hosted a FIS DEVO and some real good racers were there.

I've got a pretty busy schedule ahead of me. I have a SL race at Sugarbush on Friday, two GS races at Stowe the next two days, a SL race at Wildcat on Monday, a GS at Smugglers Notch Tuesday, and then a SL at Cochran's on Wednesday. Rumor has it that Ted Ligety will be there again this year so I'm real pumped to see him race and compete against him. Good Luck to everyone the rest of the season!

.)) Kazui Kusumi

Breezy's Blog: JO's on the way!

Wait, I thought the season just started! Seems like winter just goes by so fast. That is what I have been hearing for weeks strait. Ski racing season is one of the shortest of any sport out there, partly due to the increase of winter sports inside, which unless in Dubai is impractical for true ski racing, can you imagine having a downhill inside, that one we can’t quite do. So due to the difficulty of putting an entire mountain inside a building our sport season is limited to five months at best. This makes the end of our season even more different than other sports, in other sports after nationals your coach tells you about practice on Monday, not ski racing. This increases the end of the season’s worth. I don’t want to go seven months on a bad end of year race.

The problem with these end of season races is also that they are the difficult ones. If your end of season race is J2 Nationals, Wistler Cup, U.S. Nationals, Western Region Chams, Junior Olympics, or simply IMD Champs there is always more people your against. They’re simply designed to be harder races. With this comes the stress and that feverish need for results. The problem is, only one person gets to stand on the podium and be the best (with the exception of ties) yet I can always find 20 others who would give their souls for the position, and half the rest of the field who were disappointed at their result.

So when I sit here, one day before Junior Olympics, listening to cheesy, moving music, a pre-big-race ritual, I have to realize that it has been an amazing ride. I can’t look back on this season with a sour taste, I already had a blast, I don’t think one race can ruin that! Do I want to win, yes, but I know to do that I just have to put it down the hill and have a run just as fun as this season has been. Athletes have to realize that one race is not going to make or break their careers, not one day. You have to think about whether this race, which is one day to a week, is really worth seven months of anger at your result, that’s what I have to think about going into this JO’s and hopefully I can pull it off.

.)) Breezy Johnson

Vogel's Voice: Top in Central

Hey guys, so it's been a pretty eventful month or so, with all the races going on and travel etc. At the qualifiers at my home hill in Marquette Michigan, everything came together and I won every race except slalom. It's even more fun when you win by one 100th against a good friend..... which I did in 1 of my GS races! How crazy is that? One 100th? On the last night, we had the dreadful awards that last like 3 hours of listening to Brewster McVicker announce all the events and winners and finally the overall winner! I hit my 1st goal of being the overall winner in my division.

After all that, we started to drive to Aspen 4 days later which is such a boring and long drive. When we got to Aspen, the place we were staying at was amazing! It was 30 minutes away but that was ok because we were able to eat at home every night and save a ton of money.

As always the first morning of an event is the hardest with waking up so early. It usually gets better though, the training was decent for downhill. I tried my DH skis the first day but felt I could do better on my SG skis so I switched for the next training run and the race. It paid off, for the race I was winning all the splits when I ran 21st but 2 gates before the finish I got launched into some of the soft snow and had to stand up to pull out of it. Still not sure how I made it. That bobble cost me the race putting me in 6th. SG had no major struggles and went home with a 7th, I was pretty fired up. For GS I decided to go for broke and even though I managed to boot out, I still got 15th on a really technical course so I was pretty happy with myself. It was by far the coolest GS course I have ever skied.

All I needed to do now was have a good day of Slalom which seemed to be going great after training on the day off. That night though I caught the flu and had a really high fever until about 2am the day of the Slalom. As bad as I wanted to race, I had no strength and didn't want to risk injury. There were a couple of guys who I normally am very close to that ended up in the top 5 or 10 so that may have helped my overall a lot. Oh well, welcome to ski racing right?

I really liked the skiing at Aspen and it was fun to hang with fellow SRD member Andrew Hancock a little at the awards. Andrew and Serina did really well, I hope to bring more to the SRD table next year in J2's. The Aspen team ripped it up and I am happy that I was at least the top kid from Central. Next year is a new year and lots of things change every year. I look forward to training harder and trying to improve on my results. What a crazy sport, 1 tiny mistake and your back a couple spots. I guess that's the fun of the Championships.......everyone is a really good skier.

Then to top things off, we get home and I find out I made the print with a cool picture in Ski Racing magazine for the DH at my qualifiers that was pretty cool.

I hope everyone has a GREAT summer and look forward to more blogs of summer activity

.)) Colin Vogel