Vera Wagner: National champion in freeski

Vera Wagner started skiing when she was 4 years old. She is now 8 and garnered a bronze medal last month at the United States of America Snowboard and Freeski Association (USASA) National Championships at Copper Mountain, Colorado.

Nick and Katelynn Wagner, Vera’s parents, relocated to Groton from Asheville, North Carolina, in 2017 because they wanted better educational opportunities for Vera. She attended Groton Elementary School from pre-K 3 through second grade before the Wagners moved to Ithaca in October 2021 to reduce Katelynn’s commute to her job as an instructional technologist at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Although the Wagners no longer reside in Groton, Nick is still very much involved here as the program manager and summer camp director for the Groton Youth Services Program — a partnership with Rural Youth Services of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County. The program is funded by the United Way of Tompkins County, the Tompkins County Youth Services Department and the town and village of Groton.

Nick is also known for his time coaching both the modified and varsity boys’ soccer teams at Groton High School, but he said he is not a good skier at all.

When the Wagners lived in North Carolina, Katelynn was a snowboard and ski instructor for six years at Sugar Mountain Resort. As soon as the ski season began in 2018 after they moved here, Katelynn hit the slopes at Greek Peak in Virgil, taking 4-year-old Vera with her every time!

“I tried snowboarding once or twice,” Vera said. “But I didn’t really pick it up, so my mom threw me on a pair of skis without any poles, and I skied down from the top of the mountain my very first day.”

Vera said she has since learned how to use ski poles but feels much more confident without them.

By the end of that first season in 2018 and 2019, Vera had mastered all of the trails at Greek Peak, including the black diamond trails. And by the end of the next season, Vera said she wanted to start going to the trick park, which I asked Vera to explain.

“It’s like a skate park but on skis or snowboards instead of skateboards,” Vera said. “There are jumps, rails and boxes you can practice tricks on.”

Vera said she was “really excited” to try skiing across her first box but then nervous because she wasn’t sure she would make it. Once she did it, though, she felt so happy that she “wanted to try it again and again.”

As Vera approached her third ski season in 2020, Katelynn knew she needed to find some coaching for Vera for the freeski aspect of the sport. She did some research and found Travis McDowell with the CNY FreeRide Team (cnyfreeride.com), which had just started at Greek Peak that season, and signed Vera right up.

Vera spent that season with lessons once per week as she learned and practiced her skills at rail jam and other tricks. By her fourth season, 2021-22, Vera began competing in the USASA competitions on the weekends.

Katelynn and Nick both beamed with pride as they explained that the USASA is essentially a feeder program for Olympic development and qualification, although Vera said she is not sure yet if that is a road she wants to travel.

This past January, Vera brought home a gold medal for first place in rail jam (7- and 8-year-old category) at the national qualifier competition at Peek’n Peak Resort in Clymer, New York, and in February, she won the Ms. Swag award at the Scott Delforte Park Jam competition, as well as the bronze medal in the overall women’s division.

“There were seven participants — with Vera being the youngest — all the way up to adult women,” Nick said.

Katelynn added that, to qualify for nationals, participants must take first place in the region, “and Vera’s win at Clymer did that for her.”

Thus, off the Wagners went to the USASA National Championship competition at Copper Mountain this past April, where Vera took fifth place overall in the 7- to 10-year-old category.

In addition to the thrill of such an accomplishment, Vera said she was also excited about some of the other things she experienced.

“That was my first time on a plane and on a subway,” Vera said. “And I saw a tumbleweed and did a 360 spin over the top of a box in the competition. I just learned to do it at the practice, and it was my first time to do it ever!”

When Vera is not skiing, she also enjoys soccer, basketball, rollerblading, camping and hiking with her friends and family, climbing trees, rock climbing at the Lindseth Climbing Center at Cornell, swimming, arts and crafts and running. She recently started doing Taekwondo also.

In school, Vera said she especially likes reading and math but likes all the subjects and “likes school a lot, but now that it’s three quarters of the year toward the end, maybe it should just end now.”

“I’m really happy I got fifth place at nationals,” Vera said. “I was expecting maybe I would get eighth. Now, I just want to get better at the rails and not chicken out after I had a fall this year and got eight stitches in my chin. I just want to progress and keep learning and having fun.”

Groton on the Inside appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Submit story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com or text or call Linda at (607) 227-4922.

In brief:

Groton Youth Services summer camp

Get ready for a summer full of friends, sun and fun, as Groton Youth Services hosts the Groton Summer Camp 2022. There will be weekly themes, games, swimming, arts and crafts, special events and more. Breakfast, lunch and snacks are included during the standard camp day, and after-camp care is available to those who need it for a small additional fee. The staff looks forward to seeing you this summer!

Camp will take place July 5 through Aug. 12 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Groton Jr./Sr. High School, 400 Peru Rd.

After-camp care is available Monday through Friday from 4 to 5:30 p.m. for students in kindergarten through grade six. Register at reg.cce.cornell.edu/Groton2022_SummerCamp_250.

Camp cost entails a $10 registration fee per family, due at time of registration. The weekly camp rate is $150 or $900 for a full summer. After-camp care rate is $15 weekly per camper. Payment is due a minimum of seven days prior to your youth attending that week of camp.

A limited number of scholarships are available. If you are interested in applying for a scholarship or have general camp questions, please contact Nick Wagner at nw346@cornell.edu. To be considered for a scholarship, applications must be submitted no later than May 30.

Library events

The Groton Public Library Garden Club will meet at 6 p.m. May 18. Join your friends and neighbors for all things gardening.

The GPL Book Club will meet at 7 p.m. May 19. This month’s focus is “My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry” by Fredrik Backman. Contact the library staff by phone at (607) 898-5055 or stop at the front desk to ask for an available copy.

Internship opportunity for high school students

The Boyce Thompson Institute, located on the Cornell University campus, is welcoming high school interns this summer to join the 2022 Workforce Advantage Program. This internship provides students with work experience in varying operational areas in order to build a workforce development pipeline equipped to support scientific research “beyond the lab.”

To learn more about the Boyce Thompson Institute, please visit their website at btiscience.org. Interested students can apply at btiscience.org/workforce-advantage-program/.