Durango Freestyle ski team member Shane Ellis brought home a state title from the USSA Rocky Mountain Freestyle Devo State Championships in Telluride last weekend.
Ellis narrowly edged teammate George McQuinn in the slopestyle competition.
Both skiers finished the season on top of all other skiers in the state, dominating the competition.
Spinning his way down the course, Ellis posted a score of 94, while McQuinn managed an 88.
The next closest competitor scored a 78.
The state championship pits developing freestyle skiers (ages 7-14) from Purgatory against more than 100 skiers representing teams from Winter Park, Aspen, Telluride, Vail, Steamboat Springs and Summit County.
Ellis followed up his gold-medal performance with a fifth-place finish in moguls.
McQuinn added a seventh place in moguls.
Former state mogul champion Benji Mickel skied to a 12th-place finish in J4 (ages 11-12) moguls.
J5 skier Carter McQuinn (ages 9-10) took sixth in slopestyle and 13th in moguls. Teammate Max Wilson earned eighth- and 12th-place honors.
Charlie Mickel posted sixth- and 10th-place finishes in the J6 category (8 and under).
Coleman Bader went No. 16 and No. 21, with Jimmy Pope finishing 24th and 27th.
Leading the charge for the girls was Trudy Mickel.
Last year’s state champion, Trudy Mickel won silver in moguls and fourth place in slopestyle for J5 girls (9-10).
Sadie Smith posted her highest scoring run of the year to take a fourth in moguls and sixth in slopestyle for J4s (11-12).
Callie Jung earned ninth- and 14th-place finishes, with Amina Youssef posting an eighth-place finish in moguls.
“The success at the state championships this year was all due to the determination these athletes put out during training,” Devo coach Andy Robinson said in a news release. “With all of the improvements Purgatory has done to our mogul training course, aerial site and especially to the terrain park has really paid off,” he said.
“This, along with the mileage during the week at Chapman Hill (in Durango), really had our athletes in good shape.”
The complete listing of results from the Rocky Mountain Devo Championships can be found at www.rockymountainfreestyle.com.
The final competition of the year for the Durango Freestyle team will be the USASA Nationals at Copper Mountain in April.
Team members earning trips are Ty MacGuffie, Hank Stowers, Cole Korte, Jamie Wanzek and Nolan Stowers.
dstrode @durangoherald.com
