Lily Dhawornvej Sets The Bar 5 Points Above: 2025 Women’s Snowboard RSEO Semifinal
Lily Dhawornvej. Photo: Dodds
Sixteen-year-old Lily Dhawornvej dominated the Women’s Parkstyle Semifinal on Saturday, the top qualifier for Sunday’s Final by an extraordinary 5-point margin. The women’s event truly kicked things off at the inaugural snowboard Rockstar Energy Open (RSEO) in Breckenridge, Colorado.
“I was super surprised when the score came in,” Lily said after upgrading from 90.00 in Run 1 to 95.00 in Run 3. Lily is having an incredible start to her career: She earned Knuckle Huck bronze in her X Games debut in January 2025, and her best World Cup result to date when she finished 4th at the World Cup Aspen Big Air event in February 2025. She officially joined the U.S. Snowboard Pro Team this season.
Kaitlyn Adams. Photo: Dodds
“I got into this to ride and have fun with my friends and all of this success has been a surprise,” she said after Saturday’s Semifinal. Looking towards Sunday’s Final, Lily says she has more surprises planned. “I'm definitely hoping to bump up my rail tricks, and I'm loving the course. It's super technical. It's super sick. Thanks, Charles, for building this amazing course!”
Jessica Perlmutter. Photo: Durso
Lily’s run started up top with a boardslide pretzel, Cab five to front three combo on the whale tail, Indy air on the hip, stalefish air on the pipe wall, and frontside boardslide on the down-flat-down rail to finish.
The field of 14 women in total, seven of which were invited by way of the Video Qualifier Series, were left chasing her the entire event.
Veda Hallen. Photo: Durso
Each snowboarder was given three runs each on the 2025 RSEO course, which included a radical on-and-off whale tail set of jumps, a huge hip and quarterpipes on either side with rail plazas to start and end. It was a course that truly inspired creativity.
After 1st runs Lily was leading the way with a massive score of 90.00, followed closely by VQS invitees Mela Stalker with a 88.66 and Juliette Pelchat (daughter of pro snowboarder and founder of NOW bindings, JF Pelchat) with a 80.00.
Jaylen Hanson. Photos: Dodds
VQS qualifier Mela’s run in particular was easy on the eyes and for that rewarded by the judges. Mela started with a boardslide to fakie, switch backside 180 to backside 360 mute off, big backside air off the hip to big stalefish on the quarterpipe and finished the run with a 50-50 up gap out to frontside boardslide in the last rail plaza.
Mela Stalker. Photo: Yoshida
Those three would stay on top of the leaderboard through the end of their second runs, too. Lily, though, was the only one who improved her score, and in a big way to 95.00. In fact, it was not until the final run of the entire three-run contest format that someone would upset their top three order.
Telma Sarkipaju. Photo: Dodds
Mela said she’s grateful for the chance to earn her way in through the VQS. “I didn't think it would get that far, so I'm pretty stoked on the support. I'm pretty much frothing on how much support I’ve gotten from the fans. I mean, it's pretty crazy! I hadn't put my videos together before, like, as an official thing. So it was interesting, going over my recent clips over the last year and putting them together, and now being in it, seeing this great event and riding in it is pretty sick.”
Juliette Pelchat. Photo: Yoshida
It’s been a big month for the Australian, who made her first World Cup Big Air finals at Secret Garden, China at the end of November (5th) and at Steamboat, Colorado last week (7th).
Jamie Anderson. Photo: Durso
Modern day legend, Jamie Anderson showcased her contest savvy and strengths when she dropped in for the final run of the contest to give her a 90.00 and jump into second. Showing off a hat that read “Your mom shreds” Jamie Anderson told us that all she was thinking before her final run was simply just “how to catch up to these young guns. There’s a lot of nerves up there!” But we all know her as the queen of zen, and she shared her trick is to “turn off all the chaos.”
Jamie. Photo: Durso
When the snow settled, only the eight highest scoring women advanced. Watch the rest of the chaos unfold live on theplatfrm.com for the women on Sunday at 10:10am local time in Breckenridge, Colorado.
ROCKSTAR ENERGY OPEN WOMEN’S SEMIFINAL RESULTS:
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Lily Dhawornvej, 95.00
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Jamie Anderson, 90.00
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Mela Stalker, 88.66
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Juliette Pelchat, 80.00
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Telma Sarkipaju, 77.66
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Jessica Perlmutter, 73.66
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Jaylen Hanson, 71.33
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Kaitlyn Adams, 67.66
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Veda Hallen, 66.00
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Egan Wint, 55.66
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Ellie Weiler, 55.00
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Jordyn Gricol, 51.66
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Ylfa Runarsdottir, 46.33
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Bella Warren, 15.00