April 10, 2017

The BC Mogul Team enjoys some well-deserved time off following a whirlwind of a competition season including 3 events on the Canada Cup Tour, Junior Nationals, Senior Nationals and gaining some experience at the 4 Nor-Am events. If you add in a couple of the BC Timber Tours, the total number of competitions comes to 11 overall.

Our season started off in a familiar location at the Apex Canadian Selections where Brayden Kuroda (16^th) made his first ever Selections final on Day 2 of the event. Mei Pond (12^th) and Madison Parker (11^th) respectively making finals as well on Day 1 and 2 of the event.

After the Christmas break, the athletes returned to Apex where they competed in the first Canadian Series of the year; 4 of our 5 girls made the finals including rookie Chloe Kober earning her first ever spot in a final at a Canada Cup event. Sam Cordell was our top finisher at 6^th place while Brayden Kuroda (8^th) and Hayden Person (9^th) followed closely behind ending up in the Top 10. During Day 2 of the event, the girls all skied strong, but were unfortunately knocked out in the Round of 8. Hayden Person coming so close to the podium in 4^th with Brayden Kuroda landing himself in 5^th position. As a side note, it was nice to see the Top 4 boys all belonging to different provinces!

From there, the team trekked across the country to Beaver Valley for the final Canada Cup event. On Day 1, the girls came out strong and Madison Parker (5^th), Kassidy Todd (7^th), Mei Pond (9^th) all ended up in the Top 10. The boys having an equally strong performance with Hayden Person (5^th), Sam Cordell (6^th), and Brayden Kuroda (9^th) in the Top 10 as well. Day 2 of the event ended with Mei Pond in 4^th and Hayden Person in 5^th as our top 2 finishers.

Following the event, the athletes continued competing in the NorAm Tour over a span of 4 weeks. Also following us was a string of blizzards and interesting travel days. On that note, this young group of athletes got to experience the entire Tour first hand in an international competition environment including Canadian, American, Australian and Japanese athletes. Our BC athletes deserve so much credit for maintaining their composure and competing admirably. Many of them matured over the span of just 4 events. Facing this level of competition drives the athletes to work even harder towards their individual career goals. It is constantly surprising as a coach to see improvement over such a short period of time.

To finish off the season the athletes returned to the East Coast in Val St. Come where they competed in the Canadian Championships alongside the likes of Mikael Kingsbury and Andi Naude. Day 1 of the event saw Madison Parker as the top girl finisher in 9^th place and Sam Cordell in 21^st place just missing finals. Day 2 was a great day for the team as Shaina Finlayson made it into finals and both Chloe Kober (7^th) and Brayden Kuroda (8^th) finishing in the Top 8.

With this season coming to an end, I am excited to continue moving forward with the team and seeing where each athlete’s hard work will take them.

 

Kiera Leung
Head Coach, BC Mogul Team