USC Ski & Snowboard club team dominates, qualifying for regional competition

Recently, the USC Ski & Snowboard team competed in two rounds of regional qualifiers at Mt. High and China Peak. The team qualified for the Southwest regional competition, which will take place this weekend. If they advance, they’ll compete at the National Championships next month.

The competitions, sponsored by the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association, draws student-athletes from more than 175 colleges and universities.

At nationals last year, then-senior Ali Hsueh placed second and third in boardercross and slalom. Together, Hsueh and then-sophomore Chloe Barker secured a third-place team finish in slopestyle.

This year, Regionals and Nationals will be hosted by Mammoth Mountain, a weekly training ground for the club team.

In an interview with the Daily Trojan, Head Coach and senior Nick Ford expressed his excitement for the home mountain advantage.

“We’re the only team that can consistently go up, so not only do we have easy access to the mountain, we have plenty of time to train on the courses and fire everyone up to do it,” Ford said. “We’re going to have a good crew.” 

The USC Ski & Snowboard team consists of 182 undergraduate and graduate students. Most members participate recreationally, but for those who do compete, Ford finds that it can be an enriching experience.

“These competitions are a great way to get everyone up to a new level of confidence and progress their level of skiing to places they haven’t necessarily been,” Ford said. “But we’re all doing that under the lens of having some fun.”

In late January, the team competed at Mt. High for the first round of regional qualifiers. 

Junior Chloe Barker finished seventh in slopestyle and fourth in giant slalom for women’s snowboarding. Barker’s run positioned USC sixth overall in giant slalom. 

As for men’s snowboarding, USC junior Jesse Tennant and graduate student Angelo “Gelo” Winings combined to secure a third-place finish in giant slalom. Tennant and Winings finished eighth and ninth, respectively. Winings also placed first and second in slopestyle and rail jam.

Junior Shane Cole placed first in slopestyle and giant slalom, second in rail jam, and third in slalom. Cole’s third-place ranking in slalom positioned USC in sixth place. In the team giant slalom event, Cole and junior Adam Bradford placed first. 

Last weekend, the team competed at China Peak. While some athletes had already qualified for regionals, China Peak presented an opportunity to improve their results. 

In women’s snowboarding, Barker finished fifth in slopestyle. 

In men’s ski slopestyle, Ford finished first, while Cole took third. 

The remaining rankings have yet to be released.

Following the qualifiers, Ford is optimistic about the prospect of nationals.

“We’ve got a lot of good athletes. Last year, we only had two athletes go, but this year, I’m thinking triple that,” Ford said.

Like Ford, Cole is enthusiastic about the season.

“I’ve been telling everyone, half jokingly but half serious: I want to win — we could win it,” Cole said. “I really feel like we could take home the W this year while having a ton of fun doing it on our home mountain.”

Correction: A previous version of this article referred to USC Ski & Snowboard as a club. USC Ski & Snowboard is a club team. The Daily Trojan regrets this error.

Editor’s note: Not all results from the China Peak regional qualifiers have been published at the time of publication.