U.S. Snowboard Team News
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GREENWOOD, FLETCHER WIN U.S. SNOWBOARD SLALOM
TITLES
NEWRY, Maine (March 22) - It was tough to see it
happen, but Jeff
Greenwood (Hartford, CT) and Rosey Fletcher
(Girdwood, AK) won U.S.
slalom titles Thursday in blinding snow at the
X-Nix U.S. Snowboard
Championships at Sunday River.
ESPN will broadcast coverage of the Championships
April 12 at 2 p.m.
EST.
The first event of the Championships got underway
as scheduled despite
heavy snowfall that quickly blanketed the long
course with slow white
stuff. A major Nor'easter moved into the area
Wednesday night and dumped
six to eight inches of fresh snow on the Sunday
Punch course by the time
the final racer crossed the finish line in the
early afternoon.
On-course visibility for the racers was less than
optimal as spectators
could see no more than four or five gates from the
finish area at times.
The X-Nix U.S. Snowboard Championships also double
as the Chevy Truck
U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix Finals, so not only are
the U.S. titles on the
line, but competitors can earn valuable Grand Prix
points. The overall
men's and women's Grand Prix winners, to be named
Sunday, will take home
new Chevy Trucks and several thousand in bonus
monies.
Greenwood, a member of the U.S. Snowboard Team,
laid down a two-run
combined time of 1:58.18. Canadian Jasey Jay
Anderson, last season's
overall tour winner, took second in 1:59.85 and
Canadian Jerome
Sylvestre was third in 2:00.97.
For the U.S. riders, Chris Klug (Aspen, CO) was
fourth with a time of
2:01.66 and Ryan McDonald (Entiat, WA) was eighth
in 2:03.63. Klug was
last season's overall Grand Prix alpine champion.
It was the third national slalom title for
Greenwood as he won the crown
in '99 and '97. He also won the giant slalom
championship in '97.
Greenwood was on a good pace all day as he led
after the opening run
with a time of 58.60.
Fletcher retained her title by smoking the field
with a combined time of
2:01.41. She beat second place finisher Stacia
Hookom (Edwards, CO) by
almost nine and a half seconds as Hookom, a U.S.
Team athlete, posted a
2:10.88. Japanese rider Ran Iida was third in
2:11.99.
Completing the top-three U.S. finishers was Sondra
Van Ert (Ketchum,
ID), who finished fourth with a time of 2:12.40.
Van Ert currently holds
the overall alpine title from last season.
Like Greenwood, Fletcher also led after the first
run with a 59.97. She
was the lone women's rider to record a sub-minute
time all day. In fact,
Fletcher's times were so fast, she would have
finished fourth in the
men's race. It was her fifth career U.S. title and
fourth in slalom.
"I just tried to keep my focus and race my
own race," said Fletcher. "It
was different. We never get to race two-run
slaloms, so inspection was
really important. The second course was set a
little straighter and you
could let it run on the flats."
Fletcher's season has been super solid as she
posted six podium
finishes, including three wins, on the FIS World
Cup circuit. The '96
U.S. Open slalom winner ended the year in third in
the overall World Cup
standings.
"I love slalom and it turned out to be my
event this season," said
Fletcher.
The course was one of the longest seen in
snowboard slalom as the first
run featured almost 60 gates. The new snow made
the course run extremely
slow, so a few gates were removed and the course
set straighter for the
second run.
The X-Nix U.S. Snowboard Championships continue
Friday with parallel
giant slalom, one of two disciplines to be run at
the 2002 Olympics.
Superpipe, the second Olympic event, will be
contested Saturday and the
event concludes Sunday with snowboardcross.
X-NIX U.S. SNOWBOARD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Sunday River, Maine
March 22, 2001
Slalom
MEN
1. Jeff Greenwood, Hartford, Conn., 1:58.18
2. Jasey Jay Anderson, Canada, 1:59.85
3. Jerome Sylvestre, Canada, 2:00.97
4. Chris Klug, Aspen, Colo., 2:01.66
5. Claude Boivin, Canada, 2:01.91
6. Mark Fawcett, Canada, 2:03.08
7. Stefan Boeck, Austria, 2:03.13
8. Ryan McDonald, Entiat, Wash., 2:03.63
9. Benjamin Fairchild, Kirkland, Wash., 2:03.93
10. Graham Watanabe, Sun Valley, Idaho, 2:04.03
WOMEN
1. Rosey Fletcher, Girdwood, Alaska, 2:01.41
2. Stacia Hookom, Edwards, Colo., 2:10.88
3. Ran Iida, Japan, 2:11.99
4. Sondra Van Ert, Ketchum, Idaho, 2:12.40
5. Helene Cloutier, Canada, 2:12.44
6. Miho Hasegawa, Japan, 2:14.99
7. Claire Cetera, Sun Valley, Idaho, 2:18.05
8. Lynn Ott, Bend, Ore., 2:18.07
9. Alexa Loo, Canada, 2:19.19
10. Michelle Charles, Canada, 2:19.67
- Best in the World! -