For the week of December 12 - 18, 2001

Skiers sample strong field on Payday

Eric Hays Memorial gate races

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Some of the West’s best collegiate skiers and juniors converged on Park City’s Payday ski run for the Eric Hays Memorial Intermountain Cup gate races Friday through Monday.

The Sun Valley Ski Team was well represented in the 130-racer field. Local skiers posted impressive results that included podium finishes in their classes and several top tens.

Dominating the 84-racer men’s field was University of Utah racer Pierre Olsson, 22, of Sweden. Olsson, the 2001 World University Games giant slalom silver medalist, won all four races, two GSs and two slaloms.

The women’s slalom victories went to 22-year-old University of Utah skier Petra Svet of Slovenia, the reigning NCAA slalom queen.

Earning GS victories were a couple of promising Park City Ski Education Foundation racers—16-year-old U.S. Development Team member Resi Stiegler and 17-year-old Kimberly Stephens.

Only two Sun Valley girls competed. Both did well. Jessica Hamilton finished as high as 9th of 42 girls in GS, and Laura Durkheimer climbed all the way up to 6th SL. Here are their class placings:

J1 Hamilton 6-SL, 4-SL, 3-GS, 3-GS; and J2 Durkheimer 3-SL, 4-SL, 9-GS, 9-GS.

Sun Valley’s Zachary Brown had just one slip, but otherwise led the way for the local men on Payday. In all, 84 men competed in the Hays.

Brown cracked the top ten in both GS and SL and finished on the J1 podium in Friday’s slalom opener with a third place. He DNFd Saturday’s slalom, but came back strong in the GSs Sunday and Monday.

Sean Higgins was the J2 silver medalist in all four races, moving up to 11th place overall in Monday’s GS. Wes Powell finished 15th overall in both slalom races.

Here are the class placings for Sun Valley and Hailey men at Park City:

J1 Zachary Brown 3-SL, 6-GS, 5-GS; J2 Sean Higgins 2-SL, 2-SL, 2-GS, 2-GS; and J1 Wes Powell 7-SL, 7-SL, 13-GS, 9-GS;

J2 Jason Eder 3-SL, 3-SL, 5-GS, 7-GS; J1 Marcus Acker 14-SL, 21-GS, 23-GS; and J2 Michael McClure 10-SL, 13-SL, 11-GS, 15-GS;

J3 Dewey Moss 2-SL, 1-SL, 1-GS, 1-GS; and J3 Miles Fink-Debray 3-SL, 3-SL, 2-GS, 2-GS.

Brothers Jeff Sarchett and Robin Sarchett also competed as independents and showed their veteran experience. Here are their overall placings:

Jeff Sarchett 16-SL, 11-SL, 13-GS, 7-GS; and Robin Sarchett 6-SL, 6-SL, 13-GS, 14-GS.

Many of the Intermountain racers will move to Snowbasin (Utah) for downhill and super giant slalom Dec. 13-18, then it’s off to the Mammoth Development Series Dec. 19-22.

 

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