Liberty senior Lauren Harder returned from injury sustained at the Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre Rail Jam to place third at the USCSA National Championships. (Photos by Emily Cuthrell)
Silver, bronze medals by Rich, Harder help Lady Flames skiers defend team gold in Rail Jam at USCSA nationals
3/14/2025 12:17:00 AM | Ski & Snowboard
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Women's skiers Josie Rich and Lauren Harder were complemented by fellow senior Darah Osborne, who landed in 13th to secure the Lady Flames' first-place team showing.
Heavy snowfall created picturesque if not perfect conditions on Mt. Bachelor, the site of this week's USCSA National Championships in Bend, Ore., and Liberty University's men's and women's ski & snowboard team is enjoying its Spring Break while competing in a winter wonderland.
Liberty Head Coach Tyler Sherbine said the fresh snow impacted the Slopestyle events on Thursday for the women and could slow Friday's competitions for the men's and women's skiers and the men's snowboarders as well as Saturday's  women's snowboard event.
"We got 8 inches (Wednesday), and they're calling for 10 inches (Thursday), another 8 inches on Friday, and 10 more on Saturday," Â Sherbine said. "It's not quite as bad as Mammoth Mountain (Calif.)," in 2023, when half of the competitions were canceled.
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Senior Josie Rich, shown skiing down the rail at Snowflex, had a silver-medal showing in Tuesday's Rail Jam at Mt. Bachelor in Bend, Ore.
On Tuesday, Lady Flames seniors Josie Rich and Lauren Harder captured silver and bronze medals with runs of 91 and 88 points, respectively, in the women's ski Rail Jam to lead Liberty to a gold medal team finish with 18 place points. That put the Lady Flames well in front of runner-up Rocky Mountain (Colo.) College (28), The Claremont (Calif.) Colleges (32), Westminster (Utah) University (41), and James Madison (46) in the 12-team field.
"The setup was really similar to what we were hitting all year on the East Coast, and it was built really properly, so that allowed Josie and Lauren to feel really comfortable and have fun on it," Sherbine said. "This was Lauren's first competition back from injury, and she is trying to stay healthy as she is still going through PT work."
Natalee Mckenzie was the individual gold medalist representing the University of Maine at Farmington, which placed sixth in the team standings with 58 place points with only two skiers. Senior Darah Osborne made the finals as the Lady Flames' third skier, giving Liberty a complete team, and landed in 13th place with a 69-point run.
"Darah overcame a mental block on that run by hitting the down box on the down rails," Sherbine said. "She had injured herself pretty badly on that rail feature in January and hadn't been able to get back to that until now."
On the men's ski side, senior Coby Liebelt paced the Flames with his sixth-place showing in the Rail Jam, followed by freshmen Eli Malek (15th) and Jack Swartzentruber (17th), a strong enough finish to land them on the podium with bronze medals for their 38 place points, behind Westminster (6) and UMF (24).Â
"It was really tough competition (on Wednesday), with everybody landing everything," Sherbine said.
Graduate Aubrey Gossett suffered an injury on the first practice day, leaving Liberty with three snowboarders — senior Zachary Ries, junior Evan Whitlow, and sophomore Kyle Pafford. All three made the finals and finished 11th, 12th, and 13th, respectively, with 78, 77, and 76 points to lead the Flames to a third-place finish with 42 points, behind Westminster (12) and UMF (27), and ahead of fourth-place Southeast Region rival Lees-McRae (N.C., 56).
Aside from the competition, Sherbine said the magnificence of Mt. Bachelor is awe-inspiring for the Flames and Lady Flames competitors.
"It's incredible, and we have had some time between competitions to explore the mountain," he said. "It is the biggest I've ever seen, and it has a lot of terrain to it. On the slopes, you're able to access a lot of the mountain. So when not practicing or competing, we're able to ride and have fun, and it's been cool for them to see and experience that."
In their free time, the Flames and Lady Flames have tried to make the most of opportunities to share their faith.
"Being a light on the hill, starting conversations, building relationships, that's all the fun part of it," Sherbine said.
By Ted Allen/Staff WriterMt. Bachelor in Bend, Ore., site of the 2025 USCSA National Championships, reaches a peak elevation of 9,068 feet.
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