COPPER MOUNTAIN, CO — Michelle Zeller proved she has the skills to pay the bills.

Literally, figuratively and seriously, dude.

Zeller, a junior at the University of Colorado in Boulder, absolutely stomped her second slopestyle run at the Alt Games collegiate snowboard championships to earn the $600 first-place prize.

On the three booters at the top of the run, Zeller nailed a straight air with an indy grab, a frontside 360 with an indy grab and a poke indy with a bit of steezy double-pump. She was smooth on the rails at the bottom, impressing the judges enough to get a score of 93.0.

Zeller’s first run wasn’t too shabby either, although she got a little squirrely on a few of her landings. But her 82.2 score on her first pass would have still won her the title had she ate it on the second run.

“Yeah, but I wanted to come back and stomp all of my tricks, and I think I did that,” she said.

So what’s Zeller going to do with the cash? Pay some bills, duh! “I’m so stoked I won today. Now I have money to pay the bills!” she said. “I’ve got to pay rent and I have a credit card bill due. And I checked my bank account today and I think it said my balance was negative $28.”

Zeller helped keep the Collegiate Nationals bragging rights in Boulder, following up on Heather Baroody’s win last year. Zeller’s CU-Boulder classmate Kendra Tombolato also made the Buffaloes proud with a second-place finish in this year’s competition based on a solid 59.5 on her first run.

Zeller, who rides a Gnu board is studying international affairs and Japanese, hopes to head to New Zealand this summer for a few more comps.

“Ever since I’ve been on the snowboard team at CU, this is what I’ve trained for,” she said. “Everybody talks about the Collegiate Nationals [which the Alt Games were formerly called]. We practice about five days a week and this is what we train for. It’s always the last competition of the year. I just worked hard and I finally reached my goal as national champion.”

The Alt Games continue April 17-19 in Southern California with beach volleyball, flowboarding, wakeboarding and competitive eating. The Alt Games will be broadcast on CBS Sports in a one-hour highlight show at 2 p.m. ET May 16. — BRIAN METZLER

WOMEN                                             Run 1 Run 2

1. Michelle Zeller (CU-Boulder)                  82.2         93.0

2. Kendra Tombolato (CU-Boulder)         59.5         19.5

3. Raelynd Tanrove (Green River CC)         42.7         47.2

4. Kyla Sobieralski (Col Mtn College)         24.5         32.7