Bend sisters on MBSEF team take 3 podium finishes at USASA ski-snowboard championships

(Update: adding video and Smith comments)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation athletes and sisters Tatym and Rowan Smith captured a few podium finishes, competing against the best of the best at the United States of America Snowboard and Freeski Association National Championships held at Copper Mountain, Colorado.

Tatym, a 14-year-old eighth grader at Cascade Middle School, won gold in ski halfpipe and took bronze in slopestyle at last week's event.

And her 10-year-old sister, Rowan, a fourth-grader at Miller Elementary School won silver in ski slopestyle and finished fourth in the halfpipe.

“I feel really good about myself, and proud that I finished strong and that I didn’t give up," Rowan said Tuesday.

Two other Central Oregon skiers and snowboarders finished on the podium, too. Marlo MacMillan placed first in snowboard halfpipe while Lena Santana got second in ski halfpipe.

It was the last big event of the year for the Smith sisters, who were happy to represent Central Oregon and the Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation on the national stage. 

"(Tatym's) representing her MBSEF team and I’m representing mine, and it feels really good," Rowan said.

Tatym has already competed in professional competitions and aspires to ski in the Olympics one day.