Root Roepke of Park City is new Jr. National Champion for Nordic Combined in Alaska

Root Roepke, Jr. National Champion for Nordic Combined, in Anchorage, Alaska. Photo: Bari Nan Rothchild

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Carl “Root” Roepke, 17, became the new Jr. National Champion for the sport of Nordic Combined on Thursday in Anchorage, Alaska.

On Friday, the Park City High School student, who skis on the Park City Ski and Snowboard Team, placed second in the two-man Team event with 13-year-old Liam Demong in the U20 category. Second is also where his brother Augie Roepke placed with his teammate Logan Cadman in the U16.

Both brothers competed in the National Championships earlier in the season in Lake Placid, N.Y, from where the majority of the athletes’ podium placements hailed in this Alaska Jr. Nationals.

Last season, when Jr. Nationals were hosted in Minnesota, Root was the winner of the two-man Team event with Ian Carmack. Carmack and Augie recently returned from Slovenia where they represented the USA at the Jr. World Championships.

Nordic combined is the sport of ski jumping and cross country skiing, both of which needed to be shut down at times in Anchorage due to inclement weather including high winds and below zero temperatures.

Root pulled what can be referred to as a “Demong,”, meaning he won the gold medal on day one in the individual, and the silver in a Team event on a following day. That’s what Billy Demong did in the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. He was in Alaska as a dad, and as a coach alongside Ski Jumping Coach Adam Loomis, brother of two-time Nordic Combined Olympian, Ben Loomis. The cross country coaches are none other than three-time Olympian Liz Stephen and seven-time Paralympic medalist Steve Cook.

Park City Ski and Snowboard is one of the Teams sponsored in part by the Park City nonprofit Youth Sports Alliance.

Root told TownLift, “It’s great to set a goal of winning Jr. Nationals at the beginning of the season, then accomplishing that at the end of the season.” 

Park City based USA Nordic organized this competition sanctioned by the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team, also headquartered in Park City.

Seth Rothchild and Rudger Klug from Park City got top tens, respectively, in the four-person Team Ski Jumping events. Teammate Sadie McCrank finished on a podium in the U14 girls event.

Root and Augie’s Mom, Michele, and Dad, Carl met while working at the Utah Olympic Park (UOP) for Salt Lake 2002 Olympics. Now 25 years later, Michele still works at Deer Valley as a ski instructor, and Carl still works at the UOP, where their sons train, and is nine-time Olympic announcer including Winter, Summer, Para and Youth. They were the first married, Olympic, P.A. announcers in Italy, and while pregnant with Root.

(Full journalistic disclosure; This article’s author is related to the subject/s therein.)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.