Two Bridger Ski Foundation athletes competed in the 2021 US Freestyle Junior Nationals at the Utah Olympic Park in Park City, Utah, March 8-14.  The event captures the top 65 female moguls skiers and the top 80 mens mogul skiers that are 18 years old and younger.  

Makayla Papke, a sophomore at Bozeman High School, earned a start for the second year in a row.  In the single moguls, she skied a very clean run and earned a score of 52.55. Renner Skidmore represented the men for BSF in his last year of eligibility for Junior Nationals.  

In the single mogul event, athletes had a qualification round of two runs, and the top 20 proceeded to ski a third run that would determine the Junior National Champion.  

After Renner's two-run qualification, he sat in fourth place going into finals, with a score of 84.27. BSF Freestyle Program Director Mike Papke said that Renner went into the third and final run skiing for the win. Each mogul run is a combination of speed and technique, with two aerial jumps in the run. Renner went big and performed a Rodeo 7 on the top air--a trick that's more typically seen in the terrain park, but he crashed on the landing, which put him in 20th place for the day.

A huge congratulations to these two athletes for representing BSF at the national level and for skiing with that Montana style of heart and courage. Well done!

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