Lutzka Tops Sheckler - Vans Invitational 2007 Skate Park Finals
Aug 18 2007 / Portland, OR
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Ryan Sheckler was clear back in June as the AST Dew Tour kicked off in Baltimore: he wanted to win all five Dew Tour stops after winning three of five the past two years. After Friday's Skate Park finals in Portland's Vans Invitational, the best he can hope for is four out of five as Greg Lutzka edged Sheckler for the top spot. Fabrizio Santos was third.
It's not only Lutzka's second Dew Tour victory, but also his second at the Vans Invitational, where he won in 2005. Lutzka has placed second at three Dew Tour events, including this year's Panasonic Open, so a win was possible, but still unexpected as Sheckler has been so dominant in the event this season. True, Sheckler did have a poor performance at X Games 13 only a couple of weeks ago, ending up in fourth while Lutzka was a close second to Chris Cole, but Sheckler's strong showing at the prelims Thursday made it seem like he was in pretty good shape to repeat.
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Through the opening runs, Sheckler seemed well in control. His strength is the jam session that follows the individual runs but he fell several times while Lutzka was strong and consistent, scoring a 95.50 in the final Jam for an overall score of 90.67. Sheckler's final score was an 89.83, giving Lutzka the win.
After the loss, Sheckler didn't seem to take it well, reportedly refusing to talk to the media and "running away from Dew Tour staff," according to a report on OregonLive.com. He left in a minivan, his MTV TV crew following close behind.
Even with the loss Sheckler holds a commanding lead in the race for the Dew Cup, 275 points to Lutzka's 218. If Sheckler is healthy and takes part in the next two events, Lutzka must win those events outright and hope that Sheckler finishes worse than second in at least one of them. Any other result means Sheckler is pretty likely to win the Dew Cup for Skate Park for the third consecutive year in a row.
- Lat34.com
Skate Prelims Results
Greg Lutzka, Austen Seaholm, and Wagner Ramos are pushing themselves hard to progress their own skating this year, each hoping to end the winning streak Ryan Sheckler has maintained on the AST Dew Tour for the last two years and on the first two stops of the 2007 Tour.
Lutzka came closest in Vans Invitational Skate Park Prelims, nailing tricks like a tre flip and a huge frontside kickflip 270 over the hip. Seaholm’s tech wizardry brought him close too, with bafflingly complex combos like a nose manual g-turn to frontside rock-and-roll and an attempted frontside flip late flip that might have done the trick if he’d made it. Yet once again, Sheckler held the day.
Sheckler’s first run score of 90.25 beat Lutzka and Seaholm by nearly five points, much to the delight of his screaming fans. The recent debut of the trailer for his new MTV reality skate soap Life of Ryan has Sheckler’s screaming fans out in even heavier force than ever before, and they vocally showed their sentiments when he ended up not taking his second run, apparently because of an injury sustained in the one minor mishap in his first run. Thinking a few steps ahead of himself as he approached a quarterpipe, Sheckler miscalculated and edged off the side of the ramp. The fall didn’t keep him from nailing the biggest trick of the night, a massive frontside kickflip transfer over a huge hip gap he’d been working on in practice all day, but he ducked out before his final run.
Assuming he’ll be back in action for the Finals, he’ll have his work cut out for him. In addition to Lutzka, Seaholm, and Ramos, he’ll have Danilo do Rosario, Fabrizio Santos, Danny Fuenzalida, Jereme Rogers, Chad Fernandez, Rodolfo Ramos, and Paul Rodriguez to contend with, on a course that favors the diverse styles of each of them equally.
The Vans Invitational is shaping up to be the most heated Skate Park Finals event yet… stay tuned!
Prelims Results
1. Sheckler, Ryan 90.25
2. Lutzka, Greg 85.75
3. Seaholm, Austen 85.50
4. Ramos, Wagner 83.75
5. do Rosario, Danilo 83.75
6. Santos, Fabrizio 82.25
7. Fuenzalida, Danny 82.25
8. Rogers, Jereme 82.00
9. De Andrade, Carlos 81.25
10. Fernandez, Chad 80.50
11. Ramos, Rodolfo 80.25
12. Rodriguez, Paul 79.25
14. Therres, Mathieu 77.75
15. Colamonico, Kurtis 77.00
16. Cudlipp, Chris 75.75
17. Barr, Jason 75.00
18. Jones, Rodney 75.00
19. Peterson, Mike 73.25
20. Neves, Nilton 72.25
21. Pageau, Dan 71.00
22. Brummet, Dayne 68.00
23. McDonald, Casey 66.75
25. Parent, Thomas 64.75
26. Eldridge, Pete 63.25
27. Landen, Jesse 62.25
28. Etheridge, Julian 62.00
--Press Release
