For the week of January 2 - 8, 2002

Alpine skiers at 
Sun Valley ready 
for 2002 tests

Over 150 racers look 
forward to race season

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By JEFF CORDES
Express Staff Writer

Maybe the skiing is so good and terrain so consistent that racing becomes less important.

That’s a theory routinely used to explain the shortage of Sun Valley junior racers among top U.S. competitors.

Ski Racing, the International Journal of Ski and Snowboard competition, came up with a formula, ran the numbers and published in its Oct. 19 paper a list of the top 100 U.S. juniors for 2001-02.

Colorado had 22, Vermont 18 and Utah 11. Idaho managed only three, all from Sun Valley—and two of the Sun Valley skiers, Maggie Acker and Griffin Post, are out of the program.

The third, Carl Rixon Jr., is ranked way up there, in 13th place. Not surprisingly Rixon, 19, is Sun Valley’s chief hope for the 2001-02 winter season.

"We haven’t put a racer on the U.S. Ski Team since 1996 when Clic Bloomfield made it," said Ruben Macaya, head coach and alpine program director for the Sun Valley Ski Team.

He added, "But we seem to have a foot in the door with Carl Rixon Jr. He has a good chance of making the World Junior Team this winter."

Rixon podiumed three times during Nor-Am races at Sunday River, Me. Dec. 18-20. Twice, he skied to third place in giant slalom and he was also the bronze medalist in slalom.

Macaya said, "He beat most of the racers on the U.S. Development Team. Basically Carl is now the best skier the U.S. has as a four-event skier in that 19-year-old age group."

His early-season performances earned Rixon an invitation to race with the U.S. Development Team in Europe for an FIS Cup Series including the Euro-Cup. He left Friday.

"Carl is in a great zone," said Macaya.

"His best events are slalom and giant slalom, but he’s also quite good in super giant slalom. Carl is very confident, but he’s also aware there’s a lot of work ahead of him."

And much work behind him.

Rixon cracked the top ten during the eight-race Western Region Elite FIS Spring Series last April 4-8 at Mammoth Mountain, Ca. Rixon finished sixth of 109 men in super giant slalom and seventh of 128 racers in the giant slalom.

He is the only Sun Valley racer who has emerged from what Macaya calls "a little dry spell," at the top FIS racing levels caused in part by an unfortunate series of injuries.

"It’s been one injury after another," said Macaya.

Having spent most of his life involved in skiing and coaching, however, Macaya understands that the success of ski teams seems to run in cycles.

And Sun Valley seems to be on the upswing.

"I’m looking at the Sun Valley team having one of its best seasons for the last five or six winters," he said last week. Macaya is the second-year Sun Valley Ski Team alpine program director, in charge of over 25 coaches and 156 kids ages six through 18.

Drawing much of the attention on results and progress is the Sun Valley "A" (FIS) team, an intensive year-round program that maintains rigid standards of qualification.

This year, the "A" team has nine skiers, many just entering the J1 level from the J2 group.

Sun Valley’s 2001-02 alpine team is led by 18-year-old Tyler Roos of Ketchum. He’s the only older skier returning who made last year’s Western Region J1 (ages 17-19) Olympics.

Roos won the combined silver medal (3-GS, 9-GS, 9-SG, 6-DH, 14-SL) at the Chevy Truck U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association Western Region J1 Olympics at Squaw Valley and Sugar Bowl, Ca. last March.

Coming up are first-year J1s Zachary Brown, Sean Higgins, Wes Powell and Jason Eder.

They and Roos, plus Laura Durkheimer and Jessica Hamilton, will travel with coach Tyler Palmer to the Mammoth Elite Series Jan. 6-12.

Brown has made great strides in his ski racing.

Brown (5-GS, 15-DH, 7-SG, 4-SL), had an excellent week of racing and wound up as the combined bronze medalist at the Chevy Truck U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association Western Region J2 Olympics last March at Mt. Bachelor, Ore.

Higgins’ best event is giant slalom, but the 16-year-old has potential across the board, Macaya said—plus ample motivation after a series of disappointing DNFs at the close of last winter’s racing season.

It was a tough J2 Olympics for Higgins. He DNFd the final two races after placing 8th GS and 23rd DH. It was quite a reversal from the year before, when Higgins blasted through the J3 Olympics as GS champion and slalom runner-up.

Meanwhile, 17-year-old Powell is Sun Valley’s best four-event skier among the older group, Macaya said. On Dec. 18, Powell finished 11th in an FIS downhill at Snowbasin, Utah.

Based on results, Jason Eder was just recently moved up to the "A" FIS team.

Jessica Hamilton, 17; Laura Durkheimer, 16; and Langely McNeal, 17, are the top girls.

At last year’s J2 Olympics, Durkheimer posted a couple of fine speed-event placings with 14th DH and 10th SG. Then, at the Western Region Elite FIS Series April 4-8 at Mammoth Mountain, Durkheimer was one of only two Sun Valley racers to finish all four races.

"Laura is getting to be solid as a rock," said Macaya.

Hamilton missed all last season after tearing a knee ligament. But she raced well in Argentina last summer and had two promising results, 5th and 15th, in the mid-December FIS DHs at Snowbasin.

Macaya is excited about the prospects down in the ranks.

"I see great things at the lower levels," he said. "We have a great group of five or six boys and girls in the J3, 12-13 year-old classes. They are coming along together and creating that group dynamic that makes for a promising future."

The leading local boys at last March’s J3-J4 Junior Olympics in Jackson Hole, Wyo. were Slater Storey, Eric Leyse and Matt Job. All are on the Sun Valley Ski Team this winter.

Other promising skiers on Sun Valley’s "B"/Intermountain Cup squad include Charlotte Gourlay, Tracy Chubb, Sage Pressman, Abby DuBois, Amy Alexander, Lauren Eder, Marcus Acker and Erik Nelson.

Tomorrow, Jan. 4, about 50 Sun Valley hopefuls on the "B" and "C" teams are headed for Northern Series super giant slalom season openers at Snow King in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

Macaya laughed, "There are so many we’re sending a bus. Plus, we have seven coaches going on the trip—the whole C staff and a good part of the B."

This winter, the J1 (ages 17-19) and J2 (15-16) Junior Olympics will be staged March 18-24 at Mt. Bachelor near Bend, Ore. The J3 Olympics (ages 13-14) and J4 Festival are bound for Mt. Hood, Ore. March 20-24.

Sun Valley hosts the Intermountain J1/J3 Championships March 21-24.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.