The best of the youngest Intermountain Division junior alpine ski racers ages 9-12 converged on Snowbird's Wilbere Ridge Race Hill for the J4-J5 Intermountain Championships Saturday and Sunday.
Hailey Ski Team and Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) racers accounted for 29 spots in the 167-racer field from Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. And they did very well.
Delaney Willey of the Hailey Ski Team enjoyed an excellent weekend in the J4 girls' class. She was the fourth J4 Saturday in giant slalom, then moved up to the slalom silver medal Sunday .10 seconds off the top time.
Willey earned a berth in the Western Region J4 Festival March 17-20 at Snowbird, Utah. She is one of seven HST/SVSEF racers competing this week at Snowbird. The others are Ali Maricich, Ainsley Gourlay, Riley Berman, Gregory Roos, Meghan Luck and J4 Tanner Farrow.
The winner of both girls' races at the Intermountain finals was Rose Caston of Snowbird, like Willey a second-year J4.
Hailey's Amanda Stelling was the dominant J5 girl at Snowbird. In fact, she placed ninth overall of all 64 two-run finishers in Sunday's slalom. Stelling won the J5 girls' giant slalom by .40 seconds and the slalom by 3.21 seconds over J5 slalom silver medalist Nicole Roos of Sun Valley.
Miles Sweek of the Hailey Ski Team, a first-year J4, broke through for a third-place overall finish out of 81 two-run slalom finishers. Chase Caulkins had a pair of top-ten overall results, and J5 Connor Farrow won the J5 boys' slalom, at 25th overall.
Here are local class placings for the 29 local skiers in each discipline at Snowbird. In all, there were 167 racers, 97 boys and 70 girls from around the region:
J4 girls (11-12): Delaney Willey 4-GS/2-SL; Hannah Rudolph 8-GS/16-SL; Erica Eshman 10-GS/15-SL; Halsey Pierce 11-GS/10-SL; Gracie Brown 20-GS/8-SL; Alexi Fitch 23-GS/34-SL; Nina Hirner 24-GS/11-SL; Hannah Lynch 29-GS/31-SL; Kyra Wiethorn 30-GS/28-SL; Marly Morgus 32-GS/32-SL.
J4 boys: Miles Sweek 31-GS/3-SL; Chase Caulkins 10-GS/9-SL; Bergen Palmer 17-GS/6-SL; Tanner Farrow 13-GS/50-SL; Harlan Collins 20-GS/18-SL; Jake Freeman 36-GS/28-SL; William Eagan 53-GS/31-SL; August Danielson 44-GS/55-SL; Rory Lynch 49-GS/42-SL; Conner Bennett 52-GS/48-SL.
J5 girls (9-10): Amanda Stelling 1-GS/1-SL; Nicole Roos 8-GS/2-SL; Teagen Palmer 6-GS/5-SL; Marlow Mizer 19-GS/21-SL.
J5 boys: Connor Farrow 8-GS/1-SL; Kipling Weisel 10-GS; Adam Brown 17-GS; Cole Caulkins 19-GS/18-SL; Zack Freeman 21-GS.
