Skiers & snowboarders excel at Mid-Atlantic Regionals at Wintergreen, qualify for USCSA Nationals in Oregon

Friday, February 21

Wintergreen, VA

TBD

Liberty University Club Sports

Wintergreen Regionals

Senior men's skier Coby Liebelt won Saturday's USCSA Mid-Atlantic Regional Rail Jam and placed third in Sunday's Slopestyle event at Wintergreen Resort. (File photo by Emily Cuthrell)

Skiers & snowboarders excel at Mid-Atlantic Regionals at Wintergreen, qualify for USCSA Nationals in Oregon

2/24/2025 5:42:00 PM | Ski & Snowboard

Senior Coby Liebelt and freshman Eli Malek paced the men's ski team while Josie Rich (ski) and Maddie Morgan (snowboard) had first-place Rail Jam performances for the women.

Liberty University's men's and women's ski & snowboard travel teams qualified for the March 10-15 USCSA National Championships at Mt. Bachelor in Bend, Ore., with strong showings at Saturday's and Sunday's USCSA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships.

The Flames and Lady Flames exceled in both Saturday's Rail Jam and Sunday's Slopestyle competitions held at Wintergreen Resort, the team's winter practice slopes — aside from the all-season Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre — in nearby Nelson County.

"We did extremely well this weekend," Liberty second-year Head Coach Tyler Sherbine said. "As a whole, we were looking solid with a couple first-place showings, as well as a couple seconds and a couple thirds. They are rally finding their tempo and confidence with how new the group is as a team, and they were trying different strategies and tricks."

The Flames' men's ski & snowboard teams landed atop the podiums in Sunday's Slopestyle competition after Liberty's skiers won Saturday's Rail Jam and its snowboarders placed a close second to Lees-McRae (N.C.) College, 14-16, ahead of third-place JMU (32).

Senior Coby Liebelt and freshman Eli Malek finished first and second, respectively, in the men's ski Rail Jam with freshman Jack Swartzentruber and sophomore placing seventh and eighth to help the Flames win with 9 points, ahead of Fairfield (Conn.) University (31) and JMU (40).

"This is our home resort (and) Coby Liebelt looked right at home in the Rail Jam," Sherbine said. "He looked really confident and had a lot of switch runs in his lines. Eli Malek showed a lot of technicality on his Rail Jam and Slopestyle performances."

Liebelt, Malek, Stillman, and Swartzentruber came in third, fourth, sixth, and seventh, respectively, in Slopestyle, with freshman Jack Albee landing in ninth as Liberty edged Fairfield, 13-17.

"We just brought up Jack (Swartzentruber) this semester, and he did really well at regionals," Sherbine said. "He is still recovering from a shoulder injury, but he should be good by nationals."

The Flames' top three snowboarders landed in third (Zachary Ries), fifth (Kyle Pafford), and seventh (Evan Whitlow) to edge out Fairfield for first place in the Slopestyle team standings, 15-21, with Lees-McRae in third with 23.

Pafford finished second, Ries took seventh, and Whitlow came in ninth in the Rail Jam.

Individually, Lady Flames senior Josie Rich and graduate Maddie Morgan landed first-place finishes in the women's skiing and snowboarding Rail Jams, respectively. Rich also won Sunday's women's skiing Slopestyle event, with senior Darah Osborne taking fourth place to lead Liberty to a third-place overall finish with 28 points, behind only Lafayette (16) and JMU (19). Morgan came in fourth in women's Slopestyle, which was high enough for fifth place in the team standings while Osborne complemented Rich with a 13th-place showing in the women's ski Rail Jam for a fourth-place team showing with 37 points, behind JMU (14), Lafayette (20), and the University of Virginia (34).

Sherbine plans to take a total of 13 competitors to nationals — five men's skiers and four men's snowboarders along with three women skiers, if senior Lauren Harder recovers from injury in time, and Morgan in snowboarding.

"Josie Rich has a really good chance at podiuming for women's ski as does Maddie Morgan for women's snowboard," Sherbine said. "(Morgan), especially in her Rail Jam runs, really emphasized technicality and was a standout. She learned to snowboard at Snowflex, where she is also an employee, and has gotten competitive quick. She has recently committed to snowboarding and it's showing. She's progressing really fast."

In preparation for nationals, the team will travel to Seven Springs (Pa.) Mountain Resort this weekend before flying to Oregon the following Friday.

"They will be getting some practice in on bigger jumps at Seven Springs, which will be comparable to what we will see at nationals," Sherbine said. "Seven Springs has an incredible base right now and Mt. Bachelor is going to have a lot of snow because it always gets its biggest snowfalls in early March."

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer