What do you get when you cross ice skates, a bobsled course andthen throw in a group of four guys shooting down a hill at millionmiles per hour for a $5,000 purse? The answer is the 2004 Red BullCrashed Ice Extreme Challenge. The skating event has taken placeall over the world, and this year, it was hosted in Duluth, Minn.For senior Brent Ozenbaugh, it was the chance to try something newand exciting.
“When I read about the race and started to learn moreabout the extreme sport, I really thought it could be something Iwas good at doing,” Ozenbaugh said.
Ozenbaugh is a member of the Mustang club hockey team and hasalways had a knack for doing well on the ice.
“I love to play hockey and be on the ice,” he said.”I just thought this would be a fun event and a change fromthe normal sports I’m used to.”
Even in the new surroundings, it didn’t take long forOzenbaugh to learn the sport. He spent a couple of weeks prior tothe event getting back on his skates and out on a rink — afar cry from the extreme downhill course he would face.
“I didn’t know what to expect from the race,”he said. “I just went out and skated around the rink to tryand get a feel for being back on the ice.”
He placed first in the first heat in which he raced. He placedthird in a race later that day after a bad fall off a 10-foot gapjump. His time was still fast enough to move on. Ozenbaugh recordedthe fourth fastest lap time of 30.18 seconds in the entire event.He was competing against a field of 100 racers that included menand women from all over the world. Individuals traveled the globefrom Croatia, Canada, Sweden and Austria to enter the event.
Ozenbuagh was the lone representative from Texas and the onlyAmerican from the south.
“I thought I had a good chance to just kind of sneak up onthe competition because it was my first event,” he said.”I knew if I started the race fast, most of the guyswouldn’t be able to catch me.”
Had it not been for a tangled set of skates off the startingline, Ozenbaugh might have never been caught. In the round of 16,Ozenbaugh and Croatian Hrovoje Appelt tangled skates at the start,and Ozenbaugh could never make up the lost time. He finished inninth place out of the field of 100. Appelt moved on to finishthird in the event.
“It is definitely something I would want to doagain,” he said. “I think I can win the event, and thatmakes me want to go out and try it again.”
For more information on the event go towww.redbullcrashedice.com.
