Skiers and snowboarders showcase skills in Mid-Atlantic Regionals at Snowshoe

Saturday, February 21

Snowshoe, WV

12:00 PM

Liberty University Club Sports

Snowshoe Regionals - Slopestyle

Lady Flames skier Ceci Tinney at Snowshoe

Lady Flames freshman skier Ceci Tinney grabs some air during the USCSA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships this past weekend at Snowshoe (W.Va.) Resort. (Photos by Andrew Smith)

Skiers and snowboarders showcase skills in Mid-Atlantic Regionals at Snowshoe

2/27/2026 11:18:00 AM | Ski & Snowboard

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The Flames and Lady Flames will practice at Seven Springs (Pa.) this weekend in preparation for the March 9-14 USCSA National Championships at Lake Placid, N.Y.

Gallery: (2-26-2026) Skiing & Snowboarding at Snowshoe

After competing in this past weekend's Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships at Snowshoe (W.Va.) Mountain Resort, members of Liberty University's men's and women's ski & snowboard team qualified automatically for the March 9-14 U.S. Collegiate Ski & Snowboard National Championships at Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid, N.Y.

"We did really well, and I am really happy with where we're at," said Liberty Head Coach Tyler Sherbine, who plans to take his top five men's skiers and five snowboarders and top four women's skiers and three snowboarders to New York. "Everybody looked really good at regionals, especially in (Saturday's) Rail Jam. We won the men's and women's skiing Rail Jam and placed second to Lees-McRea (N.C.) College in women's and men's snowboard Rail Jam and second in men's ski and snowboard Slopestyle (on Sunday)."

He said the setup for both events at Snowshoe was awesome, complete with a rope tow for the terrain park and two added jumps at the bottom of the Slopestyle course. The visibility was not ideal, as it started to snow during Sunday's Slopestyle competition.

"They were pretty bad conditions to try to compete in, as it was hard to see," Sherbine said. "The snow grabs your skis, as it was soft, wet snow on top of a slushy ice, a really weird mix that made it difficult, as it came down pretty thick."

Due in part to those elements, the Flames and Lady Flames suffered injuries to freshmen Danah Osborne, a women's skier who suffered a back injury that fortunately turned out to be muscular rather than skeletal in nature, and Finn Stogner, a men's snowboarder who broke his collarbone in practice before the Slopestyle competition.

"For nationals, we will have to be without Finn, and hopefully we will have Danah back," Sherbine said. "She had a little scare, and we thought she may have broken her back. We are being extra cautious, and she is going to rest this weekend when we go to Seven Springs (Pa.) Resort for a practice trip, but she should be good to go (at Lake Placid)."

In Saturday's Rail Jam, the Lady Flames' women's snowboarders finished first as a team led by graduate Maddie Morgan's first-place run, with freshman Hailey Lemke landing on the podium in third. The women's skiers also claimed first place as a team with freshman Ceci Tinney taking second and sophomore Caroline Meehan finishing fifth followed by Osborne's sixth-place showing.

Tinney took seventh to lift the Lady Flames' skiers to a fourth-place finish in Slopestyle while Lemke came in fourth to lead their snowboarders to a fifth-place team performance.

Sophomore Eli Malek won the men's ski Rail Jam to pace the Flames to a first-place team finish and placed second in the men's Slopestyle events to lead Liberty to second-place team showing. Jake Albee finished third in the men's ski Rail Jam followed by senior Cam Brandenburg in fourth before sophomore Jack Swartzentruber finished third in Slopestyle.

"Eli Malek was looking great all weekend, and Cam Brandenburg was as well in men's skiing," Sherbine said. "We saw (freshman) Ceci Tinney, one of our women's skiers, level up all weekend, and she really found her tempo, and (freshmen snowboarders) Syrus (Castanaga-Acerra) and Jillian (Cook), they're insane, and are going to do really well at nationals."

Castanaga placed third individually and Cook finished fifth to carry the men's snowboard team to a second-place Rail Jam finish before Castanaga came in second and junior Christian Bassoo landed in fifth in Slopestyle.

Complete results for Mid-Atlantic Regional men's freeski, women's freeski, men's snowboard, and women's snowboard events are available online.

Sherbine said many of Liberty's skiers and snowboarders tuned into the Downhill, Halfpipe, Slopestyle and Big Air events at the Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, inspiring them to raise their performance levels.

"It is a different year when those big competitions are going on, and that gives a little more motivation," he said. "They're the best of the best, and you can get a lot of inspiration from the runs and the tricks that they do. It is cool to see that level of competition happening, and super fun to watch."

He noted that for the USCSA National Championships, the Opening Ceremonies will take place in the same Herb Brooks Arena in the Lake Placid Olympic Center where Team USA's men's hockey team won its last gold medal before this year's 2-1 overtime win over Canada, the 1980 upset of Russia known as the "Miracle on Ice."

Sherbine is looking forward to this weekend's training trip to Seven Springs, his home slopes that received plenty of fresh snowfall this past weekend. The resort features much larger jumps to simulate the Slopestyle course than those at Wintergreen Resort in nearby Nelson County — where the Flames and Lady Flames have season passes for practices — and even some Big Air-sized jumps.

"This weekend will be fun, a little reset before we get back into competition," he said. "We're looking solid going into nationals. That is a really fun event, one that we try to prepare for all year. It's the best of the best from across the United States, and there's always some random individuals from schools you haven't heard about that you've just got to be ready for."

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer