Dewd Pipe Semis

An international field dropped in to the Snowbasin, Utah halfpipe today in the semifinal round of the Wendy's Invitational, the second stop of the Winter Dew Tour. 19 athletes from Canada, France, USA, Finland, New Zealand, and Japan put their hearts, their health, and an entire season of dedicated training on the line to vie for 9 berths into the finals.

Things started off easy for Justin Dorey, who exhibited poise and experience well beyond his years throughout the qualifying round. The 21-year-old veteran from Vernon, British Columbia gave completely different performances with each of his two runs as if trying on different outfits for the Evening Wear category (which everybody knows is the real main event).

Men's Pipe Qualifying Results
Rank	Competitor	Country	Score
1	Justin Dorey	CAN	87.75
2	Kevin Rolland	FR	84.75
3	Peter Olenick	USA	82.50
4	Simon Dumont	USA	77.75
5	Tucker Perkins	USA	75.25
6	AJ Kemppainen	FIN	74.00
7	Colby James West	USA	73.50
8	Matt Duhamel	USA	73.00
9	Dan Marion	USA	70.25

Each of Dorey's runs earned a score high enough to place him at the top of the semifinal standings. Just for fun, he requested that the higher of the two be dropped to narrow the spread between himself and the second-place qualifier. Just kidding. Of course he'd never do that. But Justin Dorey still won qualifying.

Having narrowly missed the podium at the Totino's Open, also known as the first Winter Dew Tour stop in Breckenridge, Frenchman (you can say that on TV, right?) Kevin Rolland was the top pipe performer required to participate in the semifinals. Rolland kept that momentum going today, easily qualifying through to finals in the second spot.

Right behind the shoe-ins Dorey and Rolland in third place, the semis saw a somewhat unlikely top finisher in Peter Olenick.

Olenick, who has won several Winter X medals and was named the Top Rookie Performer at the 2004 Winter X contest, has been a viable contender at major contests throughout his career. In recent years, however, nagging injuries and an infuriating tendency to fall on the last trick of the run that counts have kept the superpipe giant from carrying his weight.

This year, that may all be behind him. "I've been much more diligent and much more focused about the training I do for these events this year," says Olenick. "Wake up early, ski, hit the gym. I'm treating it like it's my nine-to-five."

Will we see the new, harder-working pipe jock on the podium after tomorrow's final round? Maybe.

Olenick offered only that "Today felt good, and I feel good. But my focus right now is how I'm going to do what I have to do tomorrow — not how I'm going to talk about it."