McCall Idaho Headline News

Olympic champion Seth Wescott and world champion Lindsey Jacobell is swept Visa Snowboardcross titles Sunday in the Chevy U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix at snowy Tamarack Resort. Shaun Palmer was second behind Wescott.

It was the first major title of the season for Wescott, who dominated the 2006 Olympic SBX debut in Torino, Italy.

Jacobellis, meanwhile, remained on a tear, picking up her second title of the weekend. The Olympic silver medalist has won two of three World Cup SBX events, is 2-for-2 in the Jeep King of the Mountain and won the X Games so far this season.

In Saturday's superpipe event, U.S. Snowboarding's Louie Vito picked up a major victory. Kelly Clark, the 2002 Olympic gold medalist, won the women's competition.

Vito, 19, pumped up the crowd lined halfpipe by throwing down a frontside 720, back 1080, frontside 900, backside 540, shredder for his winning run.

Second place went to Greg Bretz with Elijah Teter, who also finished third at the Breckenridge Grand Prix, in third. It was Vito's first Grand Prix win.

"Any day that you have U.S. riders on the podium is a good day. We're super proud of everybody," U.S. Snowboarding Halfpipe Head Coach Mike Jankowski said.

Women's halfpipe champion Clark praised the event. "It was great. It was an amazing event," she said. "I'm glad the weather held off and we could have a good time in there,"

U.S. Snowboarding's Clair Bidez followed Clark in second and Ellery Hollingsworth was third.
The Grand Prix at Tamarack will be broadcast on NBC at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

The Tamarack event, part of the Visa Snowboardcross Series, is the only SBX stop on the Chevy Grand Prix.

The Grand Prix wraps up March 15-16 in Killington, Vt., with a halfpipe and slope style finale.
SBX riders will be back in action with a pair of World Cups in Korea and Japan the next two weekends before heading to Lake Placid, N.Y March 1-3 for the Visa U.S. Snowboarding Cup.