Colorado boarders Broc Waring, JJ Thomas, Matt Ladley qualify in US Snowboarding Grand Prix

​Three snowboarders from Colorado are among the qualifiers for today's Men's Halfpipe Finals at the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix event at Mammoth Mountain, the second of five U.S. competitions in the run-up to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

In Heat One of yesterday's qualifiers Broc Waring (Vail) and Matt Ladley (Steamboat Springs) finished behind Shaun White, Jeff Batchelor and Louie Vito, making the cut for Finals. JJ Thomas (Breckenridge) also made the cut, finishing in 5th in Heat Two, behind Greg Bretz, Danny Davis, Elijah Teter, and Justin Lamoureux.

Last month's Westword cover boy Steve Fisher missed the cut for today's Finals, but will get another chance later this week: There will be two Finals events at Mammoth, and another two at Park City Mountain in Utah later in the month, where the U.S. Olympic team announcements will be made. Fisher finished in 7th place at the first U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix event last month at Copper Mountain.

NBC will air its coverage from Mammoth Mountain on Sunday at 11:30am.