McKinstry and Snyder Crowned 2014 National Champions

USTSAOver a four-day, six-race and two-venue National Championships weekend, the men’s and women’s National Champion came down to the last race for the men and a tiebreaker for the women. At the end of the weekend, Madi McKinstry was crowned as the women’s National Champion based on a tie breaker.  This is her third National Championship. McKinstry’s total time over 6 events was 12.96 seconds faster than Sarah Carley’s total time putting McKinstry in first and Carley in second place overall.  Lyta Foulk finished in third place overall.  Entering the last day of racing, Cory Snyder and Tanner Visnick were nearly even in their event points.  They each knew that Sunday’s race would be a “winner take all”.  Snyder raced to the win by only 41 hundredths of a second in the final race and claimed the National title.  Visnick was second overall and Birk Larsen was third. In the Junior 2 men’s division, Cedar Mattole was the Champion, Paige Williams claimed the title for the Junior 1 women, Henry Barth was the Junior 1 men’s champion and Tim Boden was the top men’s Citizen.

McKinstry, a sophomore at Montana State University, remarked that, “This was probably the hardest Nationals I have had to race in so far. Between the stress of missing class (and the classes I had already missed due to the World Cups in Colorado), being injured, and the least amount of training I have had in the past five years, it is no surprise that I struggled. It was a great feeling when my name was called as the National Champion after the tiebreaker was calculated. All the stress of this year floated away, and the effort I’ve put in this season to make school and skiing work paid off.”

After the race, Snyder, a Junior at the University of New Hampshire, said, “This one was a special one for me. I’ve been so close to a national title a couple years now, so to finally win one, on the east coast no less, is an amazing feeling.” After having trouble earlier in the season with his new longer skis, he switched back to his shorter skis from last season andfelt faster. The competition was fierce this year and Snyder said, “Having Tanner, Birk, Devon, and Garrett right there with me trying to go fast was incredibly motivating, especially going blow for blow with Tanner there at the end.  Having such an awesome group of guys all gunning for each other at the top makes everybody ski so much faster.  I am just happy to have come out on top and I cannot wait to go at it again next year when we are all that much better.”

Runner up, Tanner Visnick commented that the racers were pleased with the two venues, Bromley Mountain and Haystack Mountain. He said, “It was a fun weekend with good junior participation.”

Complete Results: