Kass, Hight Win Vans Cup

Vans Cup 2008

TRUCKEE, Calif. (March 2) - Elena Hight (South Lake Tahoe, CA) and Olympian Danny Kass (Vernon, NJ) rocked out in the pipe to win the Van's Cup halfpipe session for the second year in a row Sunday at Northstar-at-Tahoe. U.S. Snowboarding's Louie Vito (Sandy, UT) pulled into second place.
Hight threw down a rhythm method, frontside 540, backside 540, frontside 900, backside air to take the win.

"Elena is such a strong young rider and is working on nailing those wins," said U.S. Snowboarding Head Coach Mike Jankowski. "She's been on the podium this season and she's just getting more consistent."

To get his second place in a field stacked with talent, Vito put up two 1080s, two 900s, and a 720 into a straight air.

"It was all really big and really smooth," Jankowski said. "Louie is obviously on fire and he wanted to beat Danny. He was going for it. But second place in a field like this is really huge.

"The team loves coming here. It's California and there's sunshine. It's an invitational event and the riders don't wear bibs, and it's high money prize," Jankowski said. "The pipe is perfect and it was just a very good experience for the riders because the level of competition is really high."

U.S. Snowboarding moves on to World Cup competitions in Stoneham, QUE March 7-9.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
2008 Vans Cup
Truckee, CA - March 2, 1008
Halfpipe

Men
1. Danny Kass, Vernon, NJ, 92.1
2. Louie Vito, Sandy, UT, 90.3
3. Iouri Podlatchkov, Switzerland, 88.3

Women
1. Elena Hight, South Lake Tahoe, CA, 92.0
2. Lizzy Beerman, Weston, VT, 81.0
3. Kjersti Buaas, Norway, 75.0
# # #