Paige Jones, Stephen Schumann jump onto Lake Placid podiums at ski jumping, nordic combined Nationals

Ben Loomis, crowned National Champion, nordic combined, in N.Y. picture taken a couple months ago when he was training in Trondheim, Norway. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Park City Ski & Snowboard athletes Paige Jones and Olympian Stephen Schumann secured third place and second place in women’s ski jumping and men’s nordic combined, respectively, on Saturday at the National Championships in Lake Placid. Jones got up there after a rare re-jump, as was allowed by the competition’s jury members. Ben Loomis took the top title.

Two-time Olympian Loomis, who grew up doing Nordic combined in Wisconsin, is a resident of Salt Lake City after spending the last decade in Park City. He beat Schumann, who ended up in second place, and Carter Brubaker of Team Alaska in third on the green, plastic hills, similar to those where athletes compete in Park City during the warmer months. All of Day One’s competition took place on the Large Hill, the 120 meter Hill.

Caroline Chor (red shorts) and Ella Wilson to her left with training camp in Norway. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

Previous National Champion in women’s ski jumping, Annika Belshaw from Steamboat Springs, CO, once again claimed her title on Saturday when Jones got her third.

In the second place step, the women’s ski jumping podium was an athlete with the story of the year, well, maybe two years, which is all she’s been in the sport, unlike the multiple years, if not decades, of her competitors. She’s achieving results that surpass those of some of her competitors, who are approximately twice her age. Caroline Chor, a junior high school student-athlete whose also a taleted and dedicated soccer player from New Hampshire, took Jr. Nationals in Park City by storm last year and performed phenomenally in Sr. Nationals in New York last weekend. She, whose family has dual citizenship with Singapore, could someday represent a Team, or even be an entire Team Singapore. This summer, she joined a teenage training camp in Norway and left a few days early, as planned, to attend soccer team tryouts for her junior high school. Decisions like that are what coaches of youth athletes encourage to develop well-rounded kids. 

Nordic Combined US/PCSS Olympian Stephen Schumann training in Trondheim, Norway. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

If that was the feel-good moment of the weekend, the feelbad moment came on Sunday during Round One of the men’s Nordic combined competition on the ‘normal’ 90-meter, more minor hill when Schumann took a tumble, was okay, but had to be helped off the field-of-play by the awaiting ski patrol in a toboggan. He was able to be at that afternoon’s roller ski race, but not to compete. Fresh from the town clinic, he was there solely for moral support, cheering from the sidelines for his teammates. He’s the always-amazing role model he’s known and loved for, with his trademark standout sportsmanship. “Sending much love from his team, coaches, and supporters,” was written on social media about his status.

Josie Johnson, Sam Macuga, Augie Roepke, Luke Miller, Seth Rothchild, and Liam Demong all represented their Park City Ski & Snowboard well. Demong was cheered on by his grandma and dad. Billy, who grew up in Lake Placid and moved to Park City after winning two Olympic medals, helped cross-country roller ski coach the Park City Team. 

Tara Geraghty-Moats, a Vermonter, won the women’s Nordic combined on Saturday, with Steamboat Springs’ Alexa Brabec and another podium for Wilson. When Geraghty-Moats crossed the finish line on her blazing fast roller skis, it was overheard by a spectator on the national live stream produced on site by Park City parent Bari Nan Rothchild, “Tara, back on top.”

Rothchild was in town visiting her son, who has moved to train full-time on the Olympic ski jump facilities there.

Back on top is right Gheraty-Moates, who was the world leader for years in women’s nordic combined, still the only Olympic sport in which men compete, but there is no women’s category at all. She stepped away from her multiple European FIS podiums and got onto the U.S.  Biathlon national team. Now, a few years of shooting and skiing have found her back to jumping and skiing, and right back onto that familiar podium.

Sunday’s podium for the normal hill nordic combined after Schumman skied out was Brubaker on top, Loomis in second, and Erik Lynch from Steamboat Springs in third place.

The men’s ski jumping podium for the men’s ski jumping was Jason Colby from Steamboat Springs in first place, followed by Tate Frantz on his home hill in Lake Placid, and in third was Andrew Urlaub from Wisconsin, who studies at the University of Utah.