February 15, 2021 at 7:43 a.m.
Hodags' White wins state girls' snowboard title
Hodags' White wins state girls' snowboard title
White was nearly flawless on Saturday as she won all three races at Mt. La Crosse to win the girls' state snowboard championship. She becomes the fifth Hodag girl to capture the state title, joining Amy Babcock, Emily Babcock, Sarah Babcock and Claire Hjelle.
"I really don't know. It hasn't processed in my brain that it actually happened," White told the River News Saturday night.
White finished fifth at state last year. Two years ago she never got the chance to compete after a training crash on Mt. La Crosse's boardercross course a couple of weeks before the state meet left her with a broken arm. She admitted that the mental scar tissue from the crash stayed with her last season.
"Last year I was super afraid of racing because I was so afraid of falling," she said. "I got a new board last year but, because of that fear, I couldn't use it very well, because it was so much faster than my last one."
A training camp in Oregon over the summer helped White conquer those fears and she entered Saturday's state meet with confidence and a Northern Conference championship.
"She did a lot of her own outside the season and within the season," coach Rod Olson said. "She became a student of the sport. She went the extra mile and sacrificed. She's a really good kid. She worked hard over the summer and in the offseason. She did more training, dryland-type stuff this year, improved her strength. She did all those things and. It paid off for her."
First thing Saturday morning, White had to face any ghosts still remaining from that training crash two years ago. Boardercross was the first event, and she was the first on the course. White set the pace with a time of 37.07 seconds, despite falling as she crossed finish line after catching too much air on the final jump.
"There were a bunch of big rollers and it was pretty scary, and I was first out so everyone was watching me," she said. "I took the top part as fast as I could and I tried not to speed check. I caught a ton of air in the last roller and crashed through the finish."
White's time held up for a 0.68-second win the event, and she was off to the races from there. She dominated the giant slalom, winning the event by 1.47-seconds. White said she "kind of just winged it," picked the correct line to gain speed at the headwall and blew away the rest of the field.
It left White in a position where a clean run in slalom would have likely been enough to secure the title. She left no doubt as completed the final run in 26.86, winning the event by 0.45 seconds.
"When she went into slalom, I just asked her to make some turns, keep each turn going and not stall on it, just keep it rolling," Olson said. "I told her, you get fourth your OK, you don't have to win, but right now you're in a position to lose. She really just had to finish, but she went and took the slalom anyway."
White said the state championship came as a bit of a surprise to her, considering that she has not had the best of luck when racing against some of the competition in USARA events outside the high school season. She said she used the pressure to perform to her advantage on Saturday.
"It was more the pressure," she said. "At our conference races, I pretty much have no competition. Today, it was just in my mind that I was really going to have to try to hard and get fast times."
Boys' snowboarders finish eighth
The Hodag boys' snowboard team finished last of the eight teams in La Crosse on Saturday. Bailey Schwab was in contention for a top-five finish overall after fifth-place finishes in both boardercross and giant slalom, but a crash in slalom knocked him down to 50th in the final standings.
"Bailey had a good day," Olson said. "He was fifth in GS, but Timmy Grubisic from our conference won the GS and had a good run. I talked to Bailey a little bit and I was like, 'This sucks, but sometimes it's just not your day.' Bailey beat him quite a few times this year, and I wanted Bailey to feel like he's in that league. It just wasn't his day."
The rest of Rhinelander's boarders finished toward the bottom the pack. Max Durkee was 36th overall, Joey Sturzl finished 37th, Reese Frisque was 41st and Brady Frisque was 45th among those who competed in all three runs. Joey Durkin was 50th in both GS and boardercross for the Hodags while Isiah Willoughby was 38th in slalom and 51st boardercross.
"They were a little guarded. I had to tell them yellow light in a few of the runs so we finished with a good team score, but they did good," Olson said.
The boys' skiing competition was going on Sunday at deadline for today's edition while the girls' skiing competition took place on Monday. Results from those events will be published in Friday's River News.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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