Animas High School senior Jamie Wanzek won a skiing national championship in the halfpipe and took a bronze medal in slopestyle at the recent USASA National Championships at Copper Mountain.
Competing in the women’s 16-18 age group, Wanzek broke through for her second and third podium finishes at nationals in her third year competing on the Purgatory Park and Pipe Team. It was her third time qualifying for nationals in eight years of competing. She started competing with the Purgatory Freestyle Team in 2005.
“It was awesome way to end my season,” said Wanzek, who also qualified for Junior Olympics for five consecutive years through this season.
Wanzek, 18, also represented Purgatory at all her competitions this season as an ambassador for Durango Mountain Resort, and appeared in some DMR advertisements.
Wanzek plans to compete next year for Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village, Nev., where she will study photojournalism.
Wanzek last year covered the Red Bull Cold Rush extreme skiing competition at Silverton Mountain as a reporter and photographer during an internship with The Durango Herald.
