Morning Star Staff
Patrick Dew did it on his mountain.
The Silver Star Freestyle Ski Club member reached the top podium spot in two events at the Canadian Freestyle Skiing Championships at the Star.
Dew won gold in the Male18 division big air final, posting a score of 90 from the judges to beat Kyran Allen of the Yukon by almost five full points.
Big air is a national level event that encourages competitors in all three Olympics freestyle disciplines to develop their acrobatic tricks and air sense.
Zachary Fenn of the host club was 15th in the same division, posting a 43.6.
In the Male16 class, Hayden Broderick of the Silver Star Club was 10th with a 52.6 while teammates Stirling Peters placed 12th (49.6) and Max Fenn was 17th (11.3).
Dew added a second gold medal in his age class in the male slope final. Dew was the class of the M18 group, scoring a whopping 95.0 from the judges to beat Ontario’s Justin Mallory (86.4) by nearly 10 full points.
Dew’s clubmate Patrick Marsh cracked the top-10, finishing ninth with 73.6 points, and Zachary Fenn was 13th with a 65.2.
In M16, Peters missed the podium by two points, finishing fourth with a 72.6. Broderick was 15th.
Adding to the gold medal haul were Silver Star club members Elena Gaskell and Hayden Person.
Gaskell, a double-gold medalist at the Canada Winter Games in February in Prince George, won the big air Female14 final in convincing fashion.
She scored 81.3 points, compared to the 55.3 put up by silver medalist Lia Sayers of Alberta.
Gaskell had the highest point total of any woman in any age category at the national finals.
Person was a double silver medalist in moguls.
In the M16 single moguls event, Person posted a score of 75.97 to finish behind Elliot Vaillancourt of Quebec, who won with 79.93.
Final results in singles moguls led to seeding for the dual moguls event, where competitors raced head-to-head in knockout rounds.
Person was seeded second for the age group’s duals competition. After an opening round bye, he eliminated fellow B.C. skiers Sam Cordell and Kevin Leslie to reach the semifinal against Quebec’s William Gagnon-Joyal, who was seeded third.
Person won to advance to the final run against B.C.’s Luke Smart, who finished fourth in singles and upset Vaillancourt in the other semi.
Smart continued his duals magic by defeating Person in the gold medal run.
In women’s single moguls, Jamie Rykuiter of the host club was fifth in the F16 group with a score of 58.17.
This seeded her fifth for the duals event, where she won her opening run over B.C.’s Chloe Kober.
Rykuiter was then eliminated in the second round by ninth seeded Mackenzie Schwinghamer of B.C., dropping Rykuiter onto the consolation side. Rykuiter was beaten in both consolation runs and finished eighth overall.
Major sponsors for the freestyle nationals included Bannister GM – Vernon; Silver Star Mountain Resort; Kal Tire; Helmut’s Sausage Kitchen; Monashee Powder Snow Cats; and Ken Gaskell, CIBC Wood Gundy portfolio manager.
