{"id":2455071,"date":"2020-02-26T22:35:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T05:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/teens-top-semifinals-at-burton-us-open\/"},"modified":"2020-02-26T22:35:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T05:35:00","slug":"teenagers-top-slopestyle-semifinals-at-burton-us-open-on-wednesday-in-vail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/teenagers-top-slopestyle-semifinals-at-burton-us-open-on-wednesday-in-vail\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenagers top slopestyle semifinals at Burton US Open on Wednesday in Vail"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.8328741965106\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-321655-409\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/SlopeMens-VDN-022720-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/SlopeMens-VDN-022720-1-1024x732.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Chris Dillmann | cdillmann@vaildaily.com | California snowboarder Dusty Henricksen catches air off a rail section during the mens slopestyle semifinals for the Burton US Open Wednesday in Vail. Henricksen, 17, qualified in first position for Friday's finals.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"0\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"11\">\n<p><strong>California snowboarder Dusty Henricksen catches air off a rail section during the mens slopestyle semifinals for the Burton US Open Wednesday in Vail. Henricksen, 17, qualified in first position for Friday&#8217;s finals.<\/strong><br \/>Chris Dillmann | cdillmann@vaildaily.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/SlopeMens-VDN-022720-1-1024x732.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"California snowboarder Dusty Henricksen catches air off a rail section during the mens slopestyle semifinals for the Burton US Open Wednesday in Vail. Henricksen, 17, qualified in first position for Friday's finals.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/SlopeMens-VDN-022720-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/SlopeMens-VDN-022720-1-1-1024x683.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Barry Eckhaus | Special to the Daily | Zoi Sadowski-Synnott flies off a jump in the slopesyle semifinals at the Burton US Open Wenesday in Vail. The 18-year old from New Zealand qualified for Friday's finals in first position.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>Zoi Sadowski-Synnott flies off a jump in the slopesyle semifinals at the Burton US Open Wenesday in Vail. The 18-year old from New Zealand qualified for Friday&#8217;s finals in first position.<\/strong><br \/>Barry Eckhaus | Special to the Daily<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/SlopeMens-VDN-022720-1-1-1024x683.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Zoi Sadowski-Synnott flies off a jump in the slopesyle semifinals at the Burton US Open Wenesday in Vail. The 18-year old from New Zealand qualified for Friday's finals in first position.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/SlopeMens-VDN-022720-1-2-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/SlopeMens-VDN-022720-1-2-1024x683.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Chris Dillmann | cdillmann@vaildaily.com | Hailey Langland flies high during the womens slopestyle semifinals at the Burton US Open Wenesday in Vail. Langland avanced to Friday's finals in third position.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>Hailey Langland flies high during the womens slopestyle semifinals at the Burton US Open Wenesday in Vail. Langland avanced to Friday&#8217;s finals in third position.<\/strong><br \/>Chris Dillmann | cdillmann@vaildaily.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/SlopeMens-VDN-022720-1-2-1024x683.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Hailey Langland flies high during the womens slopestyle semifinals at the Burton US Open Wenesday in Vail. Langland avanced to Friday's finals in third position.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/SlopeMens-VDN-022720-1-3-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/SlopeMens-VDN-022720-1-3-1024x683.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Barry Eckhaus | Special to the Daily | Stale Sandbech tweaks out a grab during the Burton US Open slopestyle competition Wednesday in Vail. Sandbech qualified for Friday's finals in third position.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"8\">\n<p><strong>Stale Sandbech tweaks out a grab during the Burton US Open slopestyle competition Wednesday in Vail. Sandbech qualified for Friday&#8217;s finals in third position.<\/strong><br \/>Barry Eckhaus | Special to the Daily<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/SlopeMens-VDN-022720-1-3-1024x683.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Stale Sandbech tweaks out a grab during the Burton US Open slopestyle competition Wednesday in Vail. Sandbech qualified for Friday's finals in third position.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/SlopeMens-VDN-022720-1-4-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/SlopeMens-VDN-022720-1-4-1024x683.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Barry Eckhaus | Special to the Daily | Canadian snowboarder Darcy Sharpe was the runner-up qualifier at the Burton US Open men's slopestyle semifinals Wednesday in Vail. Finals are Friday.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"8\">\n<p><strong>Canadian snowboarder Darcy Sharpe was the runner-up qualifier at the Burton US Open men&#8217;s slopestyle semifinals Wednesday in Vail. Finals are Friday.<\/strong><br \/>Barry Eckhaus | Special to the Daily<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/SlopeMens-VDN-022720-1-4-1024x683.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Canadian snowboarder Darcy Sharpe was the runner-up qualifier at the Burton US Open men's slopestyle semifinals Wednesday in Vail. Finals are Friday.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/teens-top-semifinals-at-burton-us-open\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/teens-top-semifinals-at-burton-us-open\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">VAIL \u2014 While female snowboarders enjoyed a sun-lit slopestyle course on Wednesday, the first day of the Burton US Open Snowboard Championships, the skies quickly turned on the men, creating flat-light conditions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Many of the top men struggled on the hard-to-see landings, leaving some familiar names \u2014 and past champions \u2014 out of the finals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">With four-time US Open champion Mark McMorris landing a clean run and yet failing to make finals, some covering the event suggested a changing of the guard might be underway in men\u2019s slopestyle. As further evidence of the claim, the top qualifier for Friday\u2019s finals will also be the youngest competitor in Friday\u2019s finals. Dusty Henricksen, 17, also won the Youth Olympic Games earlier this season, a competition that allows only athletes 18 and younger.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI\u2019m in a dream right now,\u201d Henricksen said after earning the top qualifying spot on Wednesday. \u201cThis is definitely a dream come true.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Other teenagers to make finals on the men\u2019s side include 18-year-old Judd Henkes, 18-year-old Hiroaki Kunitake and 19-year-old Red Gerard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Gerard, who won the event last year, qualified ninth out of the 10 total male athletes to advance to Friday\u2019s final. He said he was just happy to not be 10th, as that person has to take on the course first Friday. Gerard found himself in 10th before his final run Wednesday but managed to move up one spot by landing an unnatural, or switch, backside 1440, spinning blind in the most challenging of the four directions one can spin while negotiating both the takeoff and the landing in the switch stance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI was very fired up,\u201d Gerard said of the trick. \u201cThat was the first one I\u2019ve done that felt really good. I\u2019m really hyped on landing that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">Gasser qualifies second<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">On the women\u2019s side, defending champion Zoi Sadowski-Synnott locked in her final drop position for Friday\u2019s finals by topping the semifinals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Anna Gasser, the 2017 champion, qualified in second position on the very first run of the competition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cDropping first is pretty nerve-wracking,\u201d Gasser said. \u201cSo I was really nervous to drop in; I\u2019m happy I put it down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Hailey Langland, who qualified in third, had a much different experience than Gasser. She was one of the final competitors to earn her qualifying spot in Friday\u2019s finals. Langland said landing solidly off the last rail before heading into the jumps was the linchpin of her run.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cAs soon as I knew I had that good, I knew the rest of the run was going to be right there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">What started as a 16-person field had been narrowed down to 13 women before the competition even started. Among those in the original 16 was 2018 Olympian Julia Marino, who pulled out after a few practice runs on Wednesday. Marino broke her wrist earlier this season and is still taking it easy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI\u2019m just not really feeling too ready, yet, for this course,\u201d Marino said Wednesday. \u201cIt\u2019s just a little much for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Wednesday\u2019s semifinal event qualified six riders for Friday\u2019s finals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">Abbreviated training, tough course<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The slopestyle competitors said this year they received less training time than they would have preferred.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThe last few days it was a little challenging because of the weather,\u201d Langland said. \u201cBut this is the best I\u2019ve ever seen this US Open course: It\u2019s completely new to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The new course format provided quite a challenge, with two mandatory \u201cside hits,\u201d or quarterpipe-style transition features onto a straight landing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt\u2019s bringing all those elements from the pipe,\u201d Langland said. \u201cIt feels like doing a first hit in the pipe to a second hit. I think bringing that over into slope is really important, because we don\u2019t ride pipe very often throughout the season, and it just separates everyone who can ride a little bit of halfpipe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Marino, 19, said that with both sides of the halfpipe-style walls being mandatory, the challenge to learn the course was daunting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cPersonally, I think I need to work a little bit more on transition features,\u201d she said. \u201cI could definitely use some work on that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The finals are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Friday at Golden Peak. Spectators can watch for free in person from the bottom of the venue or view the competition live at BurtonUSOpen.com.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:jlaconte@vaildaily.com\">jlaconte@vaildaily.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/sports\/teens-top-semifinals-at-burton-us-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>California snowboarder Dusty Henricksen catches air off a rail section during the mens slopestyle semifinals for the Burton US Open Wednesday in Vail. Henricksen, 17, qualified in first position for Friday&#8217;s finals.Chris Dillmann | cdillmann@vaildaily.com Zoi Sadowski-Synnott flies off a jump in the slopesyle semifinals at the Burton US Open Wenesday in Vail. The 18-year [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2455071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 13:24:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2455071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}