Masters race against the clock on Baldy
347 compete in national combined race
Racing against the clock, 347 alpine racers taught Father
Time a thing or two about longevity last week at the U.S. Ski Association
Charles Schwab Alpine Masters National Championships on Baldy.
Adele
Savaria, racing here in January’s
Skoch Cup on Baldy, won the Group C national slalom and was the Class 3
combined gold medalist in last week’s U.S. Masters event on Baldy. Express
photo by Willy Cook
The very successful week-long series of events for racers
21 years of age and older was sponsored by the Sun Valley Ski Club, Sun
Valley Resort and the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation.
Outstanding skiers among the 251 men and 96 women were
both from Sun Valley, and both are coaches in the SVSEF junior alpine ski
team program.
They were former professional ski racer Tyler Palmer and
Adele Savaria, a Wood River High School graduate.
Class 6 (ages 50-54) combined gold medalist Palmer won the
Group B giant slalom by three seconds and the super giant slalom in his
group by nearly two seconds. He was the silver slalom medalist in his
class.
Ryan Dean, a SVSEF product, won combined gold in Class 2
(30-34). Combined bronze went to Peter Blitz, Bob Sarchett and Bob Dreyer.
Combined gold medalists among Sun Valley female skiers
were Virginia Reed, Anna Droege, Abbi Fisher-Gould and Adele Savaria.
Silver in combined went to Nancy Auseklis and Rosemary Moschel.
In Group D, Kristian Berg was a combined gold medalist
while Bob Chambers and Carl Fullman captured the silver for their three
events.
Here’s a summary by group, beginning with the women:
Group C, women
Individual race winners were Adele Savaria in the slalom,
Canadian Joan Wilson in giant slalom and Karoline Droege in super giant
slalom.
Class 3 (ages 35-39) leader Savaria was the most
consistent female racer at nationals. She placed third (59.78 seconds)
behind Droege (59.09) in SG; second (1:40.42) behind Wilson (1:39.40) in
GS; and first (1:24.90) by .59 seconds in SL.
SG queen Karoline Droege would have taken the Class 2
(30-34) combined gold medal if not for a first-run DNF in the SL. She won
her class in GS and was third overall.
Former U.S. Ski Team racer Fisher-Gould won the Class 4
(40-44) gold medal in SG, second overall .30 seconds behind Droege, then
was second in her class in GS, third in SL.
In Class 10 (70-74), Virginia Reed won the SL gold medal,
the SG silver and the GS bronze. Anna Droege’s combined gold in Class 8
(60-64) started with her 22nd-place overall finish in SG, then she took
the silver in her class in SL, the bronze in GS.
Unfortunately Corneil Russell was disqualified in the SG,
for she ran away with Class 8 honors in the gates—winning GS by 2.32
seconds, good for 15th overall, and taking the SL over Droege by 1.15
seconds which was 13th-place overall.
Nancy Auseklis, combined silver medalist in Class 7
(55-59), was second in all three races behind Glenn McConkey, coming
closest in SG, just .52 seconds behind McConkey.
Ketchum’s Dotty Sarchett had a decent week. She finished
10th overall in SG, which gave her the bronze in Class 3, and then was
16th overall in GS, fourth in her class.
Group D, veteran men
There was a good representation of 76 men in 60-and-over
age classes led by 85-year-old marvels Major Bill Disbrow and John
Woodward.
Individual winners were Class 8s Keith Thompson in SG,
Stephen Foley GS and SL.
Kristian Berg was the Class 11 (75-79) gold medalist in GS
and SL, and he took the bronze in SG. John Droege ended up with the
combined bronze in Class 11, his highest class placing a third in the
slalom.
In Class 10, Bob Chambers won silver in SG and SL, Bob
Tengdin won the gold in GS, Dewey Davidson had a fourth-place in GS and
Drury Cooper rose as far as sixth in SL.
Stan Beach swept the Class 9 (65-69) races en route to the
combined gold, but Fullman was the silver winner in SL and GS, and Marvin
Melville took the silver in SG. The best for Al Auseklis was fifth in his
class in SG, and Roy Tinker placed 10th in GS.
In Class 8, Ned Dolan finished fourth in GS, Andrew Eker
12th GS, Bob Berry 15th SG, Ben Harwell 22nd GS and Dick Toomey 25th SG.
Group A, men
Individual race winners were Jeff Sarchett by .40 seconds
over younger brother Robin Sarchett in SG, Sandy Treat in GS and William
McGrath in SL.
Ryan Dean started off his week placing 12th overall and
fourth in Class 2 in SG. He then earned the bronze medal in his class in
GS (16th overall) and SL (14th overall).
Another SVSEF ski team coach, Hank Minor, came up big when
he took the Class 2 gold medal in GS, seventh overall. Minor added the
bronze medal in SG.
Class 1 (21-29) gold medalists included Robin Sarchett SG
and Olin Glenne GS.
SVSEF alpine team head coach Pat Savaria claimed silver in
Class 4 GS (finishing 2nd overall) and also SG (5th overall). Nick
Maricich was another silver winner, in Class 4 SL, good for third-place
overall.
Sean Murphy just missed a combined medal, ending up fourth
in the tough Class 4. Murphy (13th SG, 7th GS, 7th SL) was best in giant
slalom, finishing eighth overall. Matt Luhn was the Class 3 silver
medalist in SG, eighth overall.
Other top class finishes included, in Class 4, Scott
Curtis ninth SG, Joe Crosson 13th GS, John Summers 15th GS, David Tendgin
18th SG, Scott Levy 19th SG and Mike Levy 20th SG and, in Class 3, Mike
Gowe fifth SG, Chris Peterson seventh GS and Curtis Bacca 15th SG.
Group B, men
Individual race winners were Tyler Palmer SG and GS, and
Victor Roy by just .06 seconds over Knut Olberg SL.
While Palmer dominated Class 6, Bob Dreyer claimed the
combined bronze including a pair of third-place results in SG and GS.
Kenny Corrock was fifth in the class in GS, 18th overall. Chris Key placed
17th SG and Jackson Allred II finished his week 17th combined.
Class 7 (55-59) was, as always, a very competitive group
when you got away from combined gold medalist Pepi Neubauer. He won the
gold in SG and GS, the silver in SL and finished second, third and fourth
in the entire Group B.
Bob Sarchett (7th SG, 5th GS, 3rd SL), coming back strong
from knee surgery, won the combined Class 7 bronze, finishing as high as
11th overall SL. Just behind in fourth place combined was Jim Ruscitto
(5th SG, 6th GS, 6th SL).
Royal McClure (9th SG, 7th GS, 4th SL) finished sixth in
Class 7 combined and was 13th overall in slalom. Meanwhile, Edgar Fenwick
was the SG bronze medalist and Gene Timmons clocked a week-best of fourth
in Class 7 in GS.
Sun Valley Ski Club president Steve Slivinski (16th SG,
20th GS, 13th SL) ended up 12th in Class 7 combined.
In Class 5 (50-54) combined won by Utah’s Bill Skinner
over Alaska’s Ken Dreyer, Sun Valley’s Tom Shanklin (10th SG, 11th GS,
5th SL) finished a respectable fifth in combined and Cliff Cunha (4th SG,
4th GS, 26th SL) would have finished much higher except for a bad first
run in slalom.
John Reagle placed 11th SG in Class 5 and 12th GS. Mark
Masur (18th SG, 18th GS, 20th SL) ended up 13th in combined. Both Randy
Van Dyke and Walt Halverson tackled the Warm Springs super giant slalom
course—Van Dyke placing 21st among Class 5 finishers and Halverson 26th.
