Interschools competitors chase state and nationals qualifications
Published Sat 27 Jul 2019
More than a thousand eager students representing 117 schools gathered at Perisher from 24-26 July to contest the Subaru ACT-Southern NSW Interschools Snowsports Championships.
Top competitors from the three-day event earned their start at the Subaru SSA Northern States Championships to be held at Perisher from 20-25 August.
Having finished third in the Snowboard Cross and fourth in the Giant Slalom, Lisa Hutchinson from Daramalan College (ACT) will compete at the National Interschools Championships at Mt Buller from 4-8 September.
Hutchinson set herself a goal to improve on her 2018 results.
“I’ve been doing more training and slowly working my way up the leaderboard and I’m really happy with how I performed,” Hutchinson said.
The year 10 student plans to keep riding after school and has set herself some serious competition goals.
“Hopefully make it overseas one day but at the moment I’m aiming for a top five finish at Nationals. Last year I was ninth in the boardercross and 11th in the Giant Slalom.”
The 15-year-old started on skiis but snowboarding was always her dream.
“I always wanted to snowboard but Dad said I needed to know how to ski parallel first.
“It made me work harder. Made me work for it.
“I started on skis when I was four and then snowboarding when I was in year five. I prefer it to skiing because it’s more fun to ride and more challenging. It's never the same, keeps me on my toes,” she said.
She is excited for Nationals and the season ahead.
“I’m pumped, it isn’t at my home mountain and that’s always fun exploring new courses.
“It’s great meeting new people at the top of the course and fun meeting people I met at Nationals last year.”