For a while Todd Richards was out of the competition. His friends helped him raise $70 fee for a protest. He fought the disqualification to the end and won. "I've got too much of Christine in me to let this one go by," he said.

"I'm fighting this all the way," Todd Richards said at the top of the Kirkwood halfpipe following his second qualifying run. "I've got too much of Christine in me to let this go. The disqualification is not going to stand."

Richards was temporarily disqualified when he allegedly performed an inverted air. "I was freaked out by the whole thing today," Richards said. "Earlier today we had John Sommers do a halfcab McTwist even though we'd all signed a waiver yesterday that said we would not do any inverted aerials, Richards said. "I looked at head judge Mike Chantry and said, 'what's up with that,' and he said John was sideways. So I went up and did it in my second run and I did a big one and I think that's what got people bumming on me. So they tired to disqualify me."

Friends at the top of the pipe helped Richards round up the 70 dollars required to protest the judges' decision and filed an official protest. After reviewing tape from the DynoComm TV cameras, the judges decided that Todd's McTwist was not technically inverted and allowed him to move on to the finals.

In hindsight, Richards admits that he threw the McTwist to wake the judges up. "The weird thing about it is that Sommers' run was kind of crappy, and just that one move was what qualified him into the second run," he says. "Obviously they saw it, so I did the move out of spite. Sure it was risky, but I was just kind of fed up with the whole thing."

By this time Todd's run was straightened out the sun had dropped behind Kirkwood's Cornice run and the judges decided to call off the head-to-head finals in favor of a single run finals. This didnt seem to bother anyone. "I'm happy it's a single run finals," said current Paul Mitchell freestyle leader Jeff Brushie. "I'm getting cold and I just want to get out of here."

When the finals were over Todd Richards and Frank Wells were tied with 38.5 points a piece. In tie situation thecores so Frank Wells finished second, with Jeff Brushie in third.

Several riders who ruled it in the earlier rounds folded a bit under the pressure of the one run finals. Chris Engelsman, who finished second in the first qualifying run and boosted the biggest airs of the day, locked up halfway down the pipe and ended up in fourteenth place. Seth Neary and Todd Franzen also had major problems.

In the women's competition Athena rolled right through the competition and took first place. "The one run finals worked out to my advantage that was for sure it was quick, easy, done over, it was nice," she said.

But on the score board it didn't look easy. Athena finished ahead of Jaime MacLeod by one two tenths of a point with Chris Hausserman was only one point behind. South Lake Tahoe's Kristi Elder who rode well all day ended up in fourth.

Competition at the Kirkwood stop of the American Snowboard Tour continues tomorrow with BoarderCross.

Kosglow and Jensen Take Kirkwood Giant Slalom (1-11-97)

Kirkwood Women's BoarderCross Results
Kirkwood Men's BoarderCross Results
Kirkwood Giant Slalom Results
Kirkwood Halfpipe Results

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