Saturday, March 16, 2019

USCSA Nationals - Giant Slalom Day

Today was the last day of racing at USCSA Nationals. For snowboarders it meant GS. Whitney was confident in her skills and I'm guessing figured she'd finish in the top 10, even before her slalom finish on Thursday. This was the race event that she likes better and hoped to do well in; slalom is her least favorite of the events she races.

It was dang cold this morning, single digits, when we met up with Connor's parents (he's the other UMF snowboarder out here). All we could do was wait at the bottom of the course. We were actually at the bottom of the corral since at the finish line you couldn't really see far up slope it's so steep. The nice thing was they had the individual times on the scoreboard and we could watch on live timing to see how races were placing. Whitney had a really good first run and finished in second. She said that she was going a bit wide on the top part then got herself together and rode the lower part better. During the break they moved gates around and reset the course. There were 25 girls that finished the first run and they do a "flip-30" where they take the top 30 finishers and start the second run with the slowest finisher from the first run and work their way up which meant that Whitney was second to last to go down.

It was hard for us waiting at the bottom for her to go. When she came down she had a really good time and was in first, but one last racer still had to drop. She was also riding well but at one of the last gates she slipped. From watching her time it looked like Whitney was probably going to win but after the slip, it was for sure. Another surprising finish for Whitney today, crowned USCSA National champion in GS!!

Every day after racing is completed they have the daily awards for the events competed that day. They give out a bunch of swag then the awards. The top 10 get to go up on the podium, places 4-10 get certificates while first, second, and third get medals as well. After Boss Hog had announced the second and third place winners you could already hear the table thumping and cheering starting for Whitney. She's made so many friends and they were all so happy for her. Boss Hog was super excited for her as well. She got a high five from him (and a hug earlier when he was giving out swag to the seniors).

The girl from Virginia has done well.

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