Rich leads women’s skiers to Slopestyle gold medal before fracturing leg Friday

Monday, March 10

Bend, OR

TBD

Liberty University Club Sports

USCSA National Championships

Lady Flames senior women's skier Josie Rich placed third in Tuesday's Rail Jam before finishing fourth in Thursday's Slopestyle event, helping them to gold medal team showings in both. (USCSA photos)

Rich leads women’s skiers to Slopestyle gold medal before fracturing leg Friday

3/15/2025 10:41:00 PM | Ski & Snowboard

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Senior Josie Rich landed in fourth place individual in Thursday's Slopestyle competition to pace the Lady Flames to first place as a team by the slimmest of margins.

Gallery: (3-15-2025) Liberty ski & snowboard USCSA Nationals

Senior Josie Rich finished fourth to pace all three Liberty University women's skiers who advanced to the finals, helping them repeat their USCSA National Championship gold medal performance from Tuesday's Rail Jam in Thursday's Slopestyle competition at Mt. Bachelor in Bend, Ore.

The Lady Flames won by the slimmest of margins over The Claremont (Calif.) Colleges on the strength of Rich (77.33) and fellow seniors Darah Osborne (11th, 38.67) and Lauren Harder (12th, 29.33).

"Lauren fell on her finals run, but had a pretty decent first run," Liberty second-year Head Coach Tyler Sherbine said. "We wanted to turn it up on her run in the finals and (it backfired)."

The trio totaled 27 place points to finish tied with the Athenas but earned the gold medal by virtue of its 96 World Cup points compared to Claremont's 92. The University of Maine at Farmington (36), Westminster (Utah) College (39, and Rocky Mountain (Colo.) College (42) rounded out the top five out of 11 colleges and universities represented.

"I'm really hoping we get the overall women's Freeski championship, though we didn't do well overall in Wednesday's Skiercross event," Sherbine said.

Unfortunately, Rich fractured her leg in a freak accident on Friday and had to stay in the hospital overnight before undergoing surgery on Saturday.

"She (skied) over some sort of ice chunk under the powder and it flipped her over and she landed awkwardly on it," Sherbine said.

In Thursday's men's skiing Slopestyle event Flames freshman Eli Malek and senior Coby Liebelt both advanced to the finals, placing seventh and 10th, respectively, with top runs of 82 and 77.67 points, to lead Liberty to a fourth-place team showing with 42 points — behind Westminster (6), UMF (19), and Fairfield (Conn.) University (33) — landing off the podium after its bronze-medal finish in Wednesday's Rail Jam.

"It was a really impressive showing and talented field," Sherbine said. "Overall, it was the hardest competition I've seen. It was difficult on snowboard side, but we have some really talented skiers, and it was crazy what they were up against."

Graduate Maddie Morgan placed seventh in Thursday's women's snowboard Slopestyle finals with an average run score of 44.33 points to lead the Lady Flames to a ninth-place showing out of 13 schools represented.

In Friday's men's snowboard Slopestyle competition, Flames senior Zachary Ries placed 12th with his best run of 49.33 to lead Liberty to a sixth-place score out of 21 teams.

Complete scores are available online.

Sherbine said heavy snowfall throughout the final few days of competition affected the results.

"Absolutely," he said from the hospital attending to Rich Friday night after the completion of the men's snowboard Slopestyle event. "It was really snowing really hard, and it totally changed the whole competition. We were practicing on a bigger set of jumps for warmups (on Thursday) and the (slope officials) had to close that run due to visibility and the low speed for the jumps due to all the new snow."

The team spent Saturday tackling Mt. Bachelor for one final day of practice runs.

"They are supposed to get two more feet of snow on the mountain on Sunday, and we'll be taking another route back to Portland (to get to the airport)," he said. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Last year's success and legacy is great, but it's time to make their own. They were not really pressured to live up to that standard. We wanted them to go out and try their best and have fun and take photos and remember the experience forever."

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer