Liz Copan / ecopan@summitdaily.com
Just days after they competed at the Land Rover U.S. Grand Prix on home snow at Copper Mountain Resort, a bevy of High Country Colorado locals qualified Thursday for the ensuing World Cup freeski halfpipe finals in Secret Garden, China.
The Copper Mountain Grand Prix champion, Aaron Blunck, qualified in first place with a score of 88.00, followed by Birk Irving of Winter Park (87.25) in second place and Breckenridge born-and-raised local Jaxin Hoerter in fifth place (84.75). Taylor Seaton of Avon qualified in eighth place with a score of 81.75.
Other Americans to qualify were Hunter Hess (third place, 85.75), Lyman Currier (sixth, 84.25) and Samson Schuiling (ninth, 80.75). X Games Aspen 2019 superpipe gold medalist Alex Ferreira failed to qualify in 12th position with a score of 78.25 while Silverthorne brothers Connor (64.75) and Dylan Ladd (54.25) took 17th and 21st places.
International athletes who qualified to Saturday’s final round include Swiss skier Robin Briguet (fourth, 85.00), Canada’s Noah Bowman (seventh, 83.50) and Bingqiang Mao of China (10th, 80.00).