Courtesy Team Summit
A trip to Chile in late August set the tone for a season that will go down as one of the most successful for Team Summit’s moguls program.
In August, Team Summit moguls head coach Paul Walker coached four Team Summit athletes on the South American snow: 17-year-olds Chase Barros and Char Campbell and 14-year-olds Evelyn Harris and Collin Hassel. The trip was part of a prep camp for some of Team Summit’s best moguls skiers. Seven months later, earlier this month that quartet and seven more Team Summit moguls skiers qualified and competed at the 2019 Freestyle Mogul Junior Championships at Snowbird Resort in Park City, Utah. At 11 skiers, it’s more Team Summit skiers than have ever qualified in Walker’s eight years with the program.
Along with Barros, Campbell, Harris and Hassel, the other Team Summit moguls athletes who qualified for junior nationals included established, elite 18-year-olds in Max Duxbury and Tori Ware, 17-year-olds Magnus Crone and Lily Koren, 16-year-old Roxy Patnode and eighth-grade skiers Jackson True and Nicole Caves.
“Our goal coming into the season was for nine,” Walker said of junior nationals qualifiers, “and we far exceeded that expectation. We were really excited to see it and the kids were really excited because this is a good thing for the whole team.”
Walker credited Team Summit’s culture of positivity and hard work for the program’s success this year.
“And that’s instilled into our older athletes who instill that into the younger athletes,” Walker said. “Everyone on the team is rooting for each other, and everyone is working to support everyone’s goals. It’s great. The kids work very hard, they are very disciplined, very goal oriented. If they set their mind to something, there’s nothing they can’t do. And I think they truly believe that.”
A pair of skiers who were not at the Chilean camp, Duxbury and Patnode, were actually at separate camps last August in Summit County. Duxbury was busy prepping to star for the Summit Tigers varsity football team in his senior season while Patnode trained with Coach Karl Barth’s juggernaut state-championship girls rugby team. Walker said all of Duxbury’s time spent with football and lacrosse helped to benefit his strength and conditioning heading into this season with Team Summit. Duxbury finished in 22nd this year at the single moguls competition at junior nationals, just outside of finals, after failing to land a run last year.
“He’s one of the strongest skiers I’ve ever seen,” Walker said. “In the weight room three to four days a week, he really takes care of his body. He has a mindset for athletics. Transitioning from football to skiing, I think it did nothing but help. He came in, had a really strong core. Very flexible and very strong, cardiovascular-wise, he was probably in the best shape of anyone on our team.”
Walker also noted that Patnode’s commitment to rugby didn’t affect her moguls preparation, as the 16-year-old routinely attended the mogul team’s summer sessions before rugby started.
As for Ware, this season was her best yet. After a successful campaign on the North American Cup circuit, where she made finals at three Nor Am events, Ware podiumed twice at junior nationals, taking third in single moguls and second in dual moguls.
The 2018-19 season was a bounceback campaign for Koren after last season when a torn ACL forced her out of a junior nationals competition she previously qualified for.
“A great kid with a great attitude,” Walker said, “she put her mind to rehab and it paid off.”
Walker also commended the youngsters True and Caves for their commitment to improving their skiing. He described them as “like sponges” when talking their penchant to soak up knowledge. True finished in third place in singles moguls within the U-15 age group division at junior nationals in Park City while Caves this year was named the Rocky Mountain rookie of the year.
As for the team overall, Walker said each individual’s commitment to year-round training led to the program’s success this season.
“They all significantly improved their jumping,” Walker said. “That was a big goal of their’s last summer and the end of last summer, to come into the season and jump at a higher level than they had been. And I definitely think they accomplished that.”