By Brooke Geery

March 27, 2000

Snowboard Cross Shannon Dunn and Jasey Jay Anderson are the proud owners of brand new Chevy trucks after winning the most overall points in the Grand Prix series. Oh yeah, and Seth Wescott and Kelly Clarke won the snowboard cross at the US Snowboard Championships, the finals for the series at Okemo on March 26, 2000. Now, back to the trucks.

Shannon was the female points leader pretty much the entire way through the series, so it was somewhat of a surprise when she didn't show up to compete in the halfpipe on Saturday. She did however, show up Sunday, obviously with intentions of driving away in her new automobile. She watched the day's event pretty lackadaisically, until in the women's semi final heat, SandraVan Ert, the only woman who could possibly beat her out in the points race, crossed the finish line first. "Oh shit!" she said, blowing her cover that she was just there to watch the event and didn't really care about winning a truck.

Seth Wescott and Kelly Clark are winners. Photo: Brooke Geery

When the women's final heat started, Mark Sullivan handed the mike to Shannon for a little guest commentating. Once again, she tried to act in different towards the outcome of the race, but you could tell she was excited when it was a soft-booter who crossed the finish line first. It turned out to be Kelly Clark, from Mt. Snow, VT. Following her were two Canadians, Candice Drouin and Dominique Vallee, second and third respectively. Sandra finished last in her heat, which she would have had to win to defeat Shannon, and sixth place just wasn't going to cut it.

The men's truck race was also had the potential for an upset. Rob Kingwill was leading with the most points. After a fifth place finish the day before, all he really had to do was get top five again to drive home rather than flying. However, it became difficult to achieve this after he was knocked out of contention in his semi final heat. At this point all he could do was sit and watch, hoping Jasey Jay Anderson didn't finish in the top two. Anderson was the only one who could take the truck away from Rob, or rather, his dad who he was planning to give it to. After a fairly spectacular finish in his qualifying heat, it looked like Anderson would have no problem coming in at least second.

Brandon Stieg, Seth Wescott, and Jasey Jay Anderson. Photo: Brooke Geery

As the final heat of men came down the course (which you could see pretty much all of from the bottom) Jasey Jay was not in first. The race belonged to Seth Wescott, who also qualified first in time trials. However, Anderson was following closely behind, and crossed the finish line knowing that he could head down and collect the keys to his new vehicle.

I don't know if it's ironic or just a coincidence, but both Wescott and Clarke took fourth place in the previous days pipe competition. Either way the Okemo event was completely East Coast dominated, and that's what I like to see. As national championships go, the X Nix US Snowboard Championships were actually far better than I had expected. Hey, I even stayed for the boardercross.

MEN
1. Seth Wescott, Farmington, Maine
2. Jasey Jay Anderson, Canada
3. Brandon Stieg, Olympic Valley, CA
4. Jason Evans, Putney, VT
5. Cooper Hall, Aspen, CO
6. Travis Rice, Jackson, WY
7. Ricky Bower, Park City, UT
8. Mark Reilly, Rutland, VT
9. Eric Cheney, Bethel, Maine
10. Thomas Parsons, Bethel, Maine
11. Eric Warren, Bennington, VT
12. Mike Rosengren, Bozeman, MT
13. Jason Smith, Basalt, CO
14. Chris Castaneda, Kings Beach, CA
15. Paul Foote, Otis, MA

Dominique Vallee, Kelly Clark, and Candice Drouin. Photo: Brooke Geery

WOMEN
1. Kelly Clark, Mt. Snow, VT
2. Candice Drouin, Canada
3. Dominique Vallee, Canada
4. Beth Fletcher, Girdwood, AK
5. Amy Gorham, Canada
6. Sondra Van Ert, Ketchum, ID
7. Lucy Marcus, Berkeley, CA
8. Amy Johnson, Bondville, VT
9. Claire Cetera, Sun Valley, ID
10. Kristen Games, USA
11. Carolyn Kunkel, Vail, CO
12. Julie Tracy, S. Lake Tahoe, CA
13. Ellen Grimmes, USA
14. Megan Paquette, USA
15. Becky Bassett, USA