Intermountain Division alpine ski racers remembered one of Sun Valley's better skiers and nicer persons when they converged on Baldy last weekend for the 17th annual Laura Flood Memorial races.
Eighty-one male racers and 40 female skiers, most in the J1 (ages 17-19) and J2 (15-16) classes, took their turns Friday and Saturday on the Hemingway and Cozy courses on the Greyhawk side of Warm Springs.
Flood was an outstanding Sun Valley skier who died in 1990 at the age of 19. And there were many outstanding ski racers in the Intermountain Cup J1/J2 qualifying event staged in sunny, cold weather.
Hailey Ski Team coach Nathan Schwing, 27, out of North Carolina's Lees-McRae College, won Friday's men's giant slalom by .61 seconds. Three years ago Schwing cracked the top 10 in the U.S. National men's giant slalom at Alyeska, Ak.
Snowbird's Mitchell Brower, 17, survived Saturday's men's slalom and won by .83 seconds on a day when 45 of the 81 starters went off the course. The top local junior was Sun Valley J1 Michael Greer, fifth in his class in the giant slalom and fourth in slalom.
Park City's Jaime Dupratt, 16, roared down Baldy and captured the ladies SL and GS by huge margins of 3.18 and 1.25 seconds. Sun Valley's J1 Katie Rothgeb had an excellent weekend on her class podium, placing second in SL and third in GS.
In all, 32 local racers were in the 123-racer field featuring contestants from Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. Check next week's Express Local Life for more race photos. Results for the final two races in the four-race series will be published as they are made available.
Here are the Laura Flood Memorial top five finishers in each race, plus best-of-weekend placings for the juniors representing the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, Hailey Ski Team and Soldier Mountain Racing:
Ladies' slalom, Feb. 2: 1—Jaime Dupratt (Park City) 1:47.18. 2—Taylor Guetschow (Park City) 1:50.36. 3—Blaine Martin (Park City) 1:50.54. 4—Katie Rothgeb (SV) 1:52.45. 5—Morgan Young 1:53.10.
Ladies' giant slalom, Feb. 3: 1—Jaime Dupratt (Park City) 1:41.92. 2—Blaine Martin 1:43.17. 3—Karen Nichole Bell (Rowmark) 1:43.30. 4—Laurie Huff (Jackson Hole/Rowmark) 1:43.99. 4—Katie Rothgeb (SV) 1:46.12.
Mens' giant slalom, Feb. 2: 1—Nathan Schwing (Hailey Ski Team) 1:33.97. 2—Justin Samuels (Rowmark) 1:34.58. 3—Mitchell Brower (Snowbird) 1:35.36. 4—Nathaniel Bloomfield (Rowmark) 1:35.49. 5—Scot Chrisman (Rowmark) 1:35.55.
Mens' slalom, Feb. 3: 1—Mitchell Brower 1:38.23. 2—William Stewart (Bogus Basin) 1:39.06. 3—Jake Biamonte (Jackson Hole) 1:39.71. 4—Kevin McJames (Park City) 1:41.70. 5—Mischa Dziezyc (Jackson Hole) 1:44.04.
J1 girls: Katie Rothgeb 2-SL/3-GS; Amanda Alexander 4-GS; Alisa Durkheimer 5-GS; Alexis duPont 4-SL/9-GS; Grayson Palmer 7-SL/8-GS. DNF—Shanny Cohen.
J1 boys: Michael Greer 5-GS/4-SL; Tyler Chandler 7-GS; Tristan Brown 10-GS; Ryon Campbell 18-GS/9-SL; Bo Brown 25-GS/8-SL; Toby Eagan 19-GS; John David Davidson 20-GS; Tom Johannson 21-GS; Derek Blash 23-GS; Jordan Smith 26-GS. DNF—Soren Ireland.
J2 girls: Ainsley Gourlay 7-SL/10-GS; Jasmine Campbell 8-SL; Bailey Ireland 11-SL; Madeleine duPont 15-GS; Emily O'Reilly 15-SL/18-GS; Karlee Stagg 18-SL/21-GS; Annie Shafran 19-SL;
J2 boys: Tanner Flanigan 5-SL; Gregory Roos 8-SL; Colter Brehmer 9-SL; Willie Adicoff 20-GS/14-SL; Nick Bowen 34-GS/22-SL. DNF/DSQ—Scott Smith.
Celebrating a good day of skiing Friday in memory of Ketchum?s Laura Flood are Sun Valley teammates, from left, Ainsley Gourlay, Katie Rothgeb and Grayson Palmer. Photo by Willy Cook
