Black brothers excel in Copper's superpipe

COPPER MOUNTAIN - Jake Black knew he put together two good runs at the Burton Amateur Series superpipe competition Sunday at Copper Mountain, but the 19-year-old from Keystone was forced to wait nearly two hours for the results.

One of Black's competitors was his brother Zack, who won the Copper Series snowboarding superpipe comp earlier in the day, which served as a qualifier for the Burton event that followed (the top 10 and top five women advanced).

The elder brother ultimately prevailed, however, as Jake won the Burton superpipe with a score of 9.03. Zack Black finished second (8.70), while Brett Esser of Frisco claimed third (8.00).

"I honestly thought he was going to win," Jake said of Zack. "He did really well at the Copper Series event earlier. ... (But) the Burton event was definitely more important to me than the Copper Series. You get a semifinals spot in the U.S. Open halfpipe. That's just really big."

Along with the wild card entry into the Burton U.S. Open (March 17-23 in Stratton, Vt.) Jake also received a Burton snowboard and $1,000. Zack won $500 and a pair of goggles, while Esser left with $250 and a cargo bag.

Jake said he was nervous he might not make the cut to the Burton event after falling during his first run in the Copper Series.

"It was definitely scary this morning after I fell on an easy strip of the pipe," he said. "I was a little more conservative on my second run because I wanted to qualify for the Burton competition. When I (qualified), I just did my thing from there."

Jake smoothly hit a front 720 into a switch 720, followed by an alley oop Japan and ended with backside 900 on his final run to claim the top prize. He seemed to enjoy the sibling rivalry in the pipe.

"It was definitely a brotherly thing," Jake, after hugging his brother on the podium.

Jake finished second in the early event, followed again by Esser in third.

Madeline Schaffrick, a 13-year-old from Steamboat Springs, swept both of Sunday's women's events. Brooke Shaw and Jordan Karlinski finished second and third, respectively, just as they did in the morning Copper Series event.

"This is the first year I'm doing the open (field), so this is really fun," Schaffrick said. "I'm already going to compete in the U.S. Open, so getting that (bid) didn't matter that much, I just wanted to come out here and have some fun."



Josh Salerno can be contacted at (970) 668-4633, or jsalerno@summitdaily.com.