U.S. snowboarders claimed seven of the eight spots during qualifying Thursday for Saturday’s women’s halfpipe final at the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix at Copper Mountain. Soko Yamaoka of Japan was the only international rider to qualify.
The U.S. septet is: Olympic gold medalist Kelly Clark (West Dover, Vt.), Olympian Elena Hight (South Lake Tahoe, Calif.), X Games gold medalist Gretchen Bleiler (Aspen), Olympic gold medalist Hannah Teter (Belmont, Vt.), Grand Prix podium performer and Copper Mountain’s own Clair Bidez (Minturn), and rookies Kaitlyn Farrington (Bellevue, Idaho) and Maddline Schaffrick (Steamboat Springs).
Men’s qualifications begin today at 9 a.m.
• Five nordic-combined athletes from Steamboat Springs were among the eight U.S. jumpers to qualify for this weekend’s Continental Cup after qualifying at Steamboat.
Todd Lodwick, Brett Denney, Taylor Fletcher, Bryan Fletcher and Alex Miller will jump in the Cup, which is being held at Park City and Soldier Hollow in Utah. The qualifying was necessary because the FIS lowered the U.S. quota from 16 to eight.
CU-Southern game canceled.
A storm that dumped 3-5 inches of snow on Baton Rouge, La., has forced the cancellation of tonight’s women’s basketball game between host Colorado and Southern University. Southern was not able to get a flight out of town. The game will not be rescheduled.
Pursley out of hospital.
J.J. Pursley, a wrestler for Chadron (Neb.) State from Brush who was injured in a car accident on Interstate 25 near the Wyoming state line Dec. 3, was released from the Medical Center of the Rockies and transferred to a rehabilitation facility.
