Athletes came from all over the country to compete in the second annual Junior Tri-X held at Texas Ski Ranch in New Braunfels, Texas. This three day event showcased junior athletes in six different events. Each athlete chose three of the six events to compete in. For example, overal winner Austin Hair competed in Wakeboard, Wakeskate and Rock Climbing. Other athletes chose from those events as well as Kayak, Skateboard and MotoCross. After the finals in each event were completed, each athlete took part in the Red Bull 7th element for bonus points towards their overall scores. This event was a grueling obstacle course that challenged each competitors athletic and mental toughness.
After finishing first in all three of his events in the preliminary rounds, Austin Hair aquired the top seed for the finals as well as a comanding lead in the points. Heading into the Red Bull 7th element Austin still had a comanding lead after finishing with two first place finishes and one third. Only Daniel Walden, who had beaten Austin in the wakeboard event, was close enough in points to catch Austin in the Red Bull 7th Element. Althogh Austin did not win the 7th Element he aquired enough points to hold onto the top overall place fairly easily.
Individual event winners besides Austin and Daniel included: Dustin Shows - MotoCross, Darren McKinley - Skateboard, Nathan Kneuper - Kayak & Red Bull 7th Element.
Nathan, one of the weekends youngest competitors came out of nowhere to win the Kayak and the 7th Element Obstacle course. Nathan proved that his training and conditioning paid off in the more physicly demanding events. Nathan walked away easily with kayak event, and barely beat out the entire field of juniors in the 7th element. As always Red Bull added a unique twist with the final event. The obstacle course included a 700ft swim, .6 mile run, a mud pit, sand crawl and many other challenging elements. While some athletes moved up in the overall standings, others plumitted out of the money. This event cleary showed who had the desire and determination to win. All though some athletes did not finish as high as they may had hoped, all of them finished the grueling course after a long and exhausting three day event.
ROCK CLIMB
1 Austin Hair - $100
2 Justin Troth
3 Daniel Walden
4 Cameron Kallies
5 Justin Doornbos
6 Ryan Anderson
SKATEBOARD
1 Darren McKinley - $100
2 Mike Vestal
3 Chris Jordan
4 Savanah Barber
5 Max Bialick
6 Forrest Hess
WAKEBOARD
1Daniel Walden - $100
2 Bryan Hutton
3 Austin Hair
4 Rob Jaques
5 Ryan Anderson
6 Dustin Shows
KAYAK
1 Nathan Kneuper - $100
2 Michael troth
3 Bryan Hutton
4 Rob Jaques
5 Ryan Anderson
6 Mike Vestal
RED BULL 7th ELEMENT
1 Nathan Kneuper - $1000
2 Dustin Shows
3 Clint Gee
TSR would like to thank the following: MasterCraft, Burger King, Liquid Force, No Fear, DaHui, Jet Pilot and Nissan. For more information please log onto www.texasskiranch.com.
