Jasey Jay Continues Pace at Jeep King of the Mountain

[Pat Donnelly]

From FirstTracksOnLine.com

Dover, VT (Sunday, January 30, 2005) - More than 20 new inches of fresh powder and wind gusts of up to 25 miles per hour courtesy of the Northeast's Blizzard of '05 paved the way last Sunday for a high intensity, action packed final day of racing for the world’s top ski and snowboard athletes in the Jeep King of the Mountain Skiing and Snowboarding World Championship at Mount Snow Resort in Vermont.

Under blue skies and sunshine, the 16-person field made up of ski and snowboard teams representing the U.S., Austria, Canada, France and Germany along with six Open Qualifiers braved bone-chilling single digit temperatures and a unique Y-shaped racecourse set up on the challenging Cooper’s Junction Run for a share of the record $75,000 prize purse and King of the Mountain honors.

On the racecourse, Jasey Jay Anderson of Team Canada completed a week for the ages, capturing the men’s snowboarding title just days after his record setting double gold medal performance in the Parallel GS and Parallel Slalom at the Snowboard World Championships in Whistler, B.C. Anderson, a two-time Olympian and 19-time World Cup winner, maintained first place in the Jeep King of the Mountain standings by out dueling Open Qualifier Pete Thorndike of Lebanon, N.H. in the finals. Anderson’s path to the championship heat included wins over Open Qualifier Eric Warren of Bennington, who has been a member of the U.S. Snowboard Team since 2000, and 2002 Olympic medalist Chris Klug of Aspen, Colo.

Thorndike, a former member of the U.S. Snowboard Team and the U.S. National Champion in 2003, made it to the finals by topping Dieter Krassnig of Team Austria, who has collected 53 top-10 finishes in his

World Cup career, and Jeff Greenwood of Hood River, Ore., a member of the U.S. Snowboard Team and winner of the most recent Jeep King of the Mountain race at Snowbird, Utah. Greenwood held on for third place honors with a victory over Klug in the consolation heat.

In the men’s ski bracket, Casey Puckett of Team USA, the defending Jeep King of the Mountain Champion, captured the title with a hard fought battle against rival and current points leader Martin Fiala of Team Germany in the championship heat. Puckett, a coach at the Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Club who first arrived on the Jeep King of the Mountain scene as an Open Qualifier, earned a pass into the second round when Josef Polig of Vipiteno, Italy, a gold medalist at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, pulled out of the competition with a knee injury. Puckett then defeated former European Champion Markus Wittner of Team Austria to set up the showdown with Fiala in the finals. Fiala, meanwhile, made his way through the bracket with a convincing win over Davey Barr of Team Canada. Wittner fought off in the consolation heat to capture third place.

The ski and snowboard racers competed Sunday for $75,000 and valuable points toward to overall King of the Mountain title. Overall, the four-event Jeep King of the Mountain Series ranks as the richest purse in snow racing, including $450,000 (U.S.) in prize money, $20,000 (U.S.) in bonuses from John Paul Mitchell Systems and the keys to a new Jeep Liberty.

A national audience will be able to view the January 23 Jeep King of the Mountain Series Skiing and Snowboarding World Championship from Mount Snow on CBS Sports on Feb. 19-20. All told, the 2004-2005 season was visible via CBS Sports and nationally syndicated television for a total of six hours of coverage between Dec. 2004 and March 2005.

Following this weekend’s race at Mount Snow, the Jeep King of the Mountain Series will gear up for the season’s grand finale at Heavenly Resort in Lake Tahoe, Calif., on Feb. 4-5, 2005.

2004-2005 JEEP KING OF THE MOUNTAIN SERIES

SKIING & SNOWBOARDING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

JAN. 23 – MOUNT SNOW RESORT, VERMONT

FINAL RESULTS

Individual Competition:

Men’s Skiing

1. Casey Puckett - USA 100 pts.

2. Martin Fiala – GER 90 pts.

3. Markus Wittner - AUT 80 pts.

4. Davey Barr - CAN 70 pts.

Men’s Snowboarding

1. Jasey Jay Anderson - CAN 100 pts.

2. Pete Thorndike – OPEN QUAL 90 pts.

3. Jeff Greenwood – OPEN QUAL 80 pts.

4. Chris Klug - USA 70 pts.