The biggest North American contest of 2025, LA’s US Open, is over and the results are in. Like last year’s event, this was one giant mixed pro-am – but before we get to that, let’s look at the Rookie division:
Rookie Division
Note: there are no ranking points given for the Rookie division.
| Position | Rider |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sojiro Konoe |
| 2 | Emma Houlihan |
| 3 | Anthony Pshbebelski |
| 4 | Noah Robles |
| 5 | Quentin Maynor |
| 6 | Chika Konoe |
| 7 | Willow Holman |
| 8 | Mia Leone |
| 9 | Alexandro Hernandez |
| 10 | JJ Negrete |
| 11 | Mike Mehl |
| 12 | Elias Martinez |
There’s a couple of names here from the Rookie division at last year’s Tucson Thunderdome, but other than those we’re seeing a whole new batch of freestylers coming up on the West coast, which is always good to see. Hopefully a lot of these folks stick around and make the jump up to the Am division in the coming years.
| Position | Riders | Nationality | Division | Ranking Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orson Merry | Canada | Am | 39 |
| 2 | Jotaro Oba | Japan | Pro | 19.5 |
| 3 | Pete Betti | USA | Pro | 9.25 |
| 4 | Shotaro Oba | Japan | Pro | 17.5 |
| 5 | Quentin Jeang-Agliardi | USA | Am | 16 |
| 6 | Jasmine Marksman | USA | Am | 15.5 |
| 7 | Jamie Chalmers | USA | Pro | 7.75 |
| 8 | Mariah Marksman | USA | Am | 14 |
| 9 | Kilian Martin | Spain | Pro | 7 |
| 10 | Eric Lowery | USA | Pro | 6.5 |
| 11 | Lance Lynn | USA | Am | 11.5 |
| 12 | Maxwell Newton | USA | Am | 11 |
| 13 | Sto Strouss | USA | Pro | 5.5 |
| 14 | Keri Tigre | USA | Am | 9.5 |
| 15 | Jacob Sexton | USA | Am | 9 |
| 16 | Bryce Noe | USA | Pro | 4.5 |
| 17 | Rhiana Grigore | Romania | Pro | 8 |
| 18 | Stephen Clarke | USA | Am | 6.5 |
| 19 | Tanner Iverson | USA | Am | 6 |
| 20 | William Howard | USA | Am | 5.5 |
| 21 | Matheus Navarro | Brazil | Pro | 2.75 |
| 22 | Ryan Nance | USA | Am | 4 |
| 23 | Cheyenne Williams | Canada | Am | 7 |
| 24 | Ricky Rodriguez | USA | Am | 3 |
| 25 | Collin McKusick | USA | Am | 2.5 |
| 26 | Jose Ramirez | USA | Am | 2 |
| 27 | Mei-Lwun Yee | USA | Masters | 1.5 |
| 28 | Dustin Umberger | USA | Masters | 1 |
| 29 | Alejandro Gallardo | USA | Am | 0.5 |
| 30 | Greg Leone | USA | Am | 0 |
Don’t understand how these points are assigned? Read the explanation here.
Orson comes off the back of his win at the Wet Coast Open Spring Fling to take the gold medal in LA, too. This is going to make him a tough one to beat in the WFSA Rankings this year – but with six months left to go it’s still almost anyone’s race in the Amateur division.
For the pros, the two Oba brothers came over from Japan to take 2nd and 4th place respectively – sandwiching Pete Betti in-between them in the process! – nicely justifying those shiny new Waltz pro models which have just been released (if the justification for those was ever in question, which it really shouldn’t be to anyone who has eyes).
Meanwhile, Jasmine Marksman takes home the honour of being the top-ranked woman in the big mixed event with her sixth place, continuing her year of stomping all over a whole lot of men in mixed divisions – which, again, is going to lead to some interesting things in the 2025 Rankings!
Anyway! For those following the calendar, all eyes are back on Germany for the Paderborn BBQ Contest on the 13th of July; as the longest-running freestyle contest in the world, there’s a fair bit of prestige to this one. It’s not too late to book your flights and get over there!
