KILLINGTON- Twin Valley snowboarding coach John Keegan said slopestyle is the team’s’ strength. He got that right. Last Thursday, the Wildcats competed at Killington and placed second out of 12 teams from around the state. Burr & Burton took first place with 37 points, followed by runner-up Twin Valley with 50 points. Rutland finished third with 60 points.

Rounding out the field were Green Mountain with 65 points; Springfield with 77 points; Leland & Gray with 104 points; South Burlington with 116 points; North Country with 125 points; Arlington with 155 points; Long Trail with 158 points; Richford with 169 points; Fair Haven with 178 points; and Mill River with 188 points.

“As a team we took second. This is a great accomplishment with so many teams there. With states approaching this will let us know where we stand,” said Keegan.

Miles Hume, of Springfield, won the slopestyle with a 15.53 score. Evan Sheridan, of Burr & Burton, was the runner-up with 14.63 score. Twin Valley’s Dylan Brage finished fifth with 13.70; Nick Birch finished seventh with 13.38; Ricardo Pereira finished 15th with 12.66; Gus Wing finished 23rd with 12.08; and Jason Moore finished 31st with 11.82. Sixty-seven riders competed in the slopestyle event.

“The meet went great. The field was so big they had to limit the number of competitors from each team to five instead of eight. Slopestyle is one of our strong points and we were able to produce,” said Keegan.

TV places sixth in final, heads to states

DOVER- The Wildcats finished the season in another slopestyle event Thursday. Although the team struggled and finished sixth out of nine teams, Birch won the slopestyle with a 13.6 score, just four-tenths of a point better than runner-up Freddie Pickering, of Arlington, with 13.2. Bryan Raiche, of Rutland, finished third with 13.1. Fifty-seven riders competed in the slopestyle event.

Twin Valley’s Tony Tarr placed 24th; Pereira placed 42nd; Trey Cunningham placed 49th; and Wing did not finish.

Burr & Burton took first place with 46 points followed by runner-up South Burlington with 58 points. Rutland placed third with 66 points. Rounding out the field were Leland & Gray with 79 points; Black River with 93 points; Twin Valley with 110 points; Springfield with 115 points; North Country with 117 points; and Richford with 180 points.

The Vermont high school snowboarding state championships take place at Mount Snow on Wednesday, March 2. The competition starts at 1 pm.