By Christina AmorosoThe Daily Northwestern
After dancing nonstop for 30 hours, many Dance Marathon participants wouldn’t consider flying to Colorado to compete in a national snowboarding competition. But just two days after dancing in DM, Stacy Williams did just that – and also won several honors.
The Weinberg senior placed fourth overall in women’s snowboarding at the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association’s 2007 national championships, held March 4-10 in Winter Park, Colo. Williams also placed fourth in women’s slopestyle, fifth in women’s halfpipe and tenth in women’s giant slalom.
Her slopestyle and halfpipe performances also won her first team All-American honors, and she won second team All-American for her giant slalom performance.
“(Winning) actually really surprised me at first,” Williams said. “I don’t consider myself really good at racing.”
Williams, a member of the NU ski and snowboard club team, said she was selected because of her performance at the USCSA divisional competition. From there, she competed in the regional competition in Marquette, Mich., where she placed second in giant slalom and third in slopestyle. She said athletes in the regional competition were automatically given the option to compete at nationals.
Williams said her friend and fellow teammate Bryan Krueger encouraged her to compete in nationals because he went last year and had a good experience.
“(I thought), why not? It’s my last year,” Williams said.
Williams said her father started to teach her snowboarding when she was in the sixth grade, after he became interested in the sport. She only practiced once with NU’s club team during her freshman year and not at all during her sophomore year.
NU does not have a varsity snowboarding team because it’s not an NCAA sport. Williams said because there is no coach to help them, teammates rely on each other for help.
She also said she practices when she goes home to Santa Cruz, Calif. during winter breaks but that she just goes “for fun.”
“I never train,” Williams said. “I just kind of taught myself how to do it.”
Williams did not start racing until her freshman year at NU, when she joined the club team. Though she was initially intimidated by her competition while she was in Colorado, she said her slopestyle score gave her an emotional boost.
“Once I found out how I was doing I was pleasantly surprised,” she said.
When Williams isn’t snowboarding, she is working on her American Studies degree. Fellow Weinberg senior and American Studies major Fritz Schenker, who has known Williams since living with her in Shepard Residential College freshman year, said the two worked together as study partners to help keep each other focused.
He also said she did not tell anybody about her participation in the national competition.
“We had to pry it out of her,” he said.
When Williams graduates in June, she said she is considering attending graduate school or pursuing a career in journalism. But she wants to continue snowboarding and cannot see herself being away from it for too long, although she said she will continue it as a hobby.
“I don’t foresee competing all that much,” Williams said.
Reach Christina Amoroso at [email protected].
