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Club snowboard team trailing off the top |
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Thursday, 08 February 2007 |
by MATT SCHNEIDER
Sports Reporter
After not losing a conference meet last season and three national championship appearances in the last four years, the Appalachian State University snowboarding club team is fighting to regain the top position in the Southeastern Conference.
“We’re not really used to losing,” Tom Miceli, sophomore club team vice
president, said. “We lost a lot of our best riders [last year].”
Currently, Appalachian trails the University of Virginia men’s A-team, as they have taken first place in every meet this season.
The women’s team is also behind Virginia in the standings, as ASU sits in second place.
The women finished in third place twice and second place last weekend at Sugar Mountain.
The men’s team got off to a “rocky” start, as they finished third
overall at Bryce Mountain, Va., and earned two second-place finishes at
Hawksnest Mountain and Sugar Mountain.
A second and third place finish might seem solid, but to ASU, anything less than first place is unusual.
“[The start] was a shock to us,” Miceli said.
The team turned in a solid performance in its lone “home” race of the season at Sugar Mountain.
The men’s team performed well in the giant slalom race, with sophomore
John Davidson finishing in fifth place and junior club president Wes
Barbour behind him in sixth.
Appalachian’s Wes Smith and Miceli were not too far behind, taking eighth and ninth place respectively.
The women’s team received a lift, as four riders placed in the top 11.
Sophomore Brisa Jankovich led the way with her third place finish with a combined time of 98.25 seconds.
Many of the team’s best riders graduated, and the team is forced to use
less experienced riders as main competitors in conference meets.
“We lost most of our A-teamers,” Miceli said. “That was kind hard and other teams still have solid riders.”
Though the Mountaineers are not taking first place as a team in every meet, there are still plenty of bright spots individually.
Jankovich is in second place overall in the women’s standings and is battling UVA’s Danie Brown for first place.
She’s 50 points behind, which is the difference between first and fourth place among teams.
Davidson is currently in sixth place overall and is only two points behind the fifth place position.
With the season still young, the teams hope to finish the season strong
and perform well in the national competition, held in Winter Park, Colo.
Other upcoming matches are all in February, as Appalachian will travel
to Snowshoe Mountain, W. Va., and Elk Mountain, Pa., for regional
competition.
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