Sun Valley Ski Team second-year J2 racer Lauren Eder repeated as the women's giant slalom champion of the Laura Flood Memorial on a sun-splashed Sunday down Baldy's 33-gate Hemingway/Greyhawk run.
Eder, 16, roared down with a two-run time of 1:41.42, nearly four seconds ahead of runner-up Lauren Summers, 16, of Edmonds, Wash. It was a nice comeback for Eder, who didn't finish the first run of Saturday's Flood slalom on Cozy.
"I'm real excited," said Eder afterwards. "I know the hill very well which helps. I'm proud to repeat as the Laura Flood giant slalom champion."
Sun Valley racers dominated the women's podium, with Eder and J2 slalom winner Calley Brown taking first places and J2 Katie Rothgeb earning the slalom silver.
Sun Valley Ski Team head coach Ruben Macaya said, "I'm real proud of the women's team. We knew Lauren could win if she could finish. And Hunter Storey had a good result with fifth place today (Monday)."
Storey, 18, earned the J1 bronze in the Flood GS. Kristian Timmons (SL) and Cameron Minor (GS) were J1 silver medalists for Sun Valley, and Hailey Ski Team J2 racer Ben Luck had a fine result with a sixth place in slalom for the bronze in his class. Corey Bellinger won the J2 GS silver.
The men's race winners, bringing plentiful points to the field, were Carl Rixon Jr., 22, by 1.18 seconds in Saturday's Cozy slalom and Robin Sarchett, 30, by .36 seconds over Rixon in Sunday's Hemingway giant slalom.
The 15th annual Laura Flood Memorial technical races, named for the excellent Sun Valley skier who died in 1990 at age 19, were Intermountain Cup races for the A and J1/J2 classes (ages 15-18).
In all, there were 117 racers—76 men and 41 women including 42 racers from the Sun Valley and Hailey ski teams.
Top juniors in the Laura Flood Memorial were J1 Alexa Perkiel of Park City, Utah and J2 Marcus Caston of Snowbird. Perkiel, 17, won Saturday's slalom and ended up seventh in GS. Caston, 16, was fifth in SL and seventh in GS.
Monday, the group tackled the third of three gate races on Baldy before heading off to Soldier Mountain's Snow King run north of Fairfield Tuesday for another set of GS events.
Sarchett won Monday's GS by 1.82 seconds with Biche Rudigoz third overall. Storey was second in J1 and Minor third. Eder went back-to-back for the women, by 3.38 seconds, with J2 Calley Brown and J1 Lauren Parsons claiming the age class silvers and Rothgeb the J2 bronze.
Here are best-of-three races placings for the Sun Valley and Hailey kids:
J1 boys: Hunter Storey 2-GS/4-SL; Cameron Minor 2-GS; Dewey Moss 5-GS; Kristian Timmons 5-GS/2-SL; Bryce Newcomb 6-GS; Taylor Stoecklein 10-GS/6-SL; Luke Chaney 15-GS; and Ross Campbell 18-GS/13-SL.
J1 girls: Lauren Parsons 2-GS; Cassidy Doucette 4-GS; Laura Speck 5-GS/5-SL; McKenna Peterson 6-GS/7-SL; Charlie Baser 8-GS/12-SL; and Elitsa Storey 12-GS/9-SL.
J2 boys: Corey Bellinger 2-GS; Tristan Brown 3-GS; Soren Ireland 5-GS/4-SL; John David Davidson 7-GS; Dixon Mooseau 9-GS/6-SL; Ben Luck 9-GS/3-SL; Ryon Campbell 13-GS/11-SL; Tyler Chandler 15-GS; John Anderson 16-GS; Ben Gourlay 20-GS; Ford Hebard 23-GS/7-SL; Casey Bennett 25-GS; Derek Blash 25-GS/22-SL; Toby Eagan 27-GS; Michael Greer 28-GS/16-SL; Matthew Preucil 19-SL; and Scott Isaacs 31-GS.
J2 girls: Lauren Eder 1-GS; Calley Brown 2-GS/1-SL; Katie Rothgeb 3-GS/2-SL; Shanny Cohen 5-GS; Amanda Alexander 9-GS/6-SL; Alexis duPont 9-GS/10-SL; Sara Berman 11-GS/9-SL; and Grayson Palmer 11-GS/12-SL.
Sunday's women's GS winner Lauren Eder proudly holds her Laura Flood trophy. Photo by Willy Cook
