The top Apex Freestyle Ski Club athletes are ready to shine on their home powder at the Canadian Junior Championship at Apex Mountain Resort this week.
From March 7 to 11 skiers from across the country will be competing in moguls, dual moguls and aerials at the junior championship and the aerials Canadian championship. For Team B.C. 12 of the 25 spots were earned by Apex Freestyle Ski Club athletes. Two alumnae were also invited — Brayden Kuroda and Hayden Person.
“It is impressive,” said coach Kenni Kuroda. “We have always been strong on moguls. Part of that is because we have probably the only moguls course in North America that is available for training so early in the season and before Christmas. We have lots of athletes that come to train here from all over the world and it definitely inspires our local athletes.”
Four of skiers from the Apex club recently stood on the podium at the B.C. Winter Games in Kamloops.Kelowna’s Jordan McDonald won gold in the female under-16 and the trio of Ethan Phillips (Kaleden), Alexander Henderson (Penticton) and Nate Parsons (Kaleden) swept the podium in the boys under-17 moguls competition. Henderson also made the junior national park and pipe team.
Related: South Okanagan athletes earn medals at B.C. Games
“Ethan, Alex and Nate are our top three male moguls athletes, as well as Cole Patton but he is a under-18 skier and they didn’t have a category for him to compete in at the B.C. Games. All these kids have a great camaraderie and really push each other to get better. Those are our strongest older kids but we also have some great skiers coming up,” said Kuroda.
Other Apex skiers competing include: Chase Capicik (also selected to the junior national park and pipe team), Malica Malherbe (also selected to the junior national park and pipe team), Ainsley MacDonald, Ethan Morf and alternates Leda Walker and Sasha Lovell.
The moguls competition takes place on March 9, aerials on March 10 and the dual moguls on March 11.
