It was an end-of-season celebrating of ski racing at Snowbird, Utah last weekend. There the 64th annual Intermountain Division Snow Cup giant slaloms and Last Chance slaloms were staged for 200 junior racers Friday through Monday.
Youngsters collected valuable International Ski Federation (FIS) points in the field of 117 men and 74 women ranging in age from 13-14 year-old U.S. Ski Team hopefuls to collegians with rosy records. GS racing was on Primrose Path, slalom on Wilbere Ridge Race Hill.
Hailey Ski Team assistant coach Nathan Schwing, 28, showed his racing talents with a 0.29-second victory in Saturday's giant slalom and another triumph, by 1.73 seconds in Monday's series-ending slalom.
Swing was also fourth overall in Sunday's slalom won by Snowbird prospect Blaise Swing, 17, a precocious first-year J1 entry. The winner of Friday's GS by 1.64 seconds was University of Utah sophomore Scott Veenis, 22, the 2006 NCAA men's giant slalom king as a Ute freshman.
Dominating the women's races was 22-year-old University of Utah sophomore Chirine Njeim from Beirut, who was Lebanon's alpine Olympian in the last two Winter Games. Njeim won both GSs by 1.22 and 0.72 seconds over Stephanie Peters, 22, of Snowbird.
Sunday's slalom winner by 2.55 seconds over runner-up Njeim was another Ute sophomore ski racer, Sweden's Mikaela Grassl, 21. And second-year J2 Angel Collinson, 16, of Snowbird carried off Monday's slalom title by .19 seconds.
Besides Schwing's performance, Wood River Valley racers at Snowbird had a number of podium finishes in their classes and 11 of the 31 local juniors finished all four of technical races in the season finale.
Sun Valley Ski Team second-year J3 racer Bergen Palmer climbed the ladder all weekend and finished with a J3 gold medal in Monday's slalom, in 23rd place overall of 70 two-run finishers. Palmer placed third in his class in Saturday's GS.
Katie Rothgeb earned silver in J1 women's GS and Alisa Durkheimer of Soldier Mountain Racing was third in J1 SL.
Those Wood River J3s finishing all four races were Alexi Fitch, Emma Wilander, Delaney Willey, Natalie Vorsteveld, Tanner Farrow, Bergen Palmer, Tyler Davis, Ryan Foster, Harlan Collins, Hunter Weaver and Tanner Dirstine.
Here are results for the 32 HST, Soldier Mountain and SVSEF skiers in the 191-racer Snow Cup/Last Chance field. The four-day event wrapped up the season for the J1 (ages 17-19), J2 (15-16) and J3 (13-14) junior alpine ski racers from Idaho, Utah and Wyoming.
J1 girls: Katie Rothgeb 2-GS/4-GS; Alisa Durkheimer 4-GS/5-GS/3-SL; and Amanda Alexander 6-GS/5-SL.
J1 boys: Tristan Brown 12-GS/7-GS/6-SL; John David Davidson 13-GS; and Derek Blash 11-SL/13-SL.
J2 girls: Jasmine Campbell 6-GS/4-GS/10-SL; and Ainsley Gourlay 17-GS/13-SL.
J2 boys: Colter Brehmer 15-GS/27-SL/13-SL; Scott Smith 18-GS/21-GS/15-SL; and Nick Bowen 28-GS/26-SL.
J3 girls: Nina Hirner 7-GS/6-GS/9-SL; Alexi Fitch 15-GS/11-GS/14-SL/8-SL; Marly Morgus 18-GS/15-SL/28-SL; Emma Wilander 20-GS/21-GS/19-SL/23-SL; Delaney Willey 21-GS/24-GS/21-SL/22-SL; Sierra Fox 22-GS/20-GS/20-SL; Natalie Vorsteveld 29-GS/22-GS/25-SL/31-SL; Hannah Rudolph 29-GS/18-SL/16-SL; and Camille Bourret 31-GS/27-SL.
J3 boys: Tanner Farrow 4-GS/22-GS/5-SL/11-SL; Bergen Palmer 7-GS/3-GS/4-SL/1-SL; Tyler Davis 13-GS/14-GS/10-SL/16-SL; Ryan Foster 17-GS/15-GS/11-SL/12-SL; Harlan Collins 19-GS/18-GS/15-SL/14-SL; Peter Stone 22-GS/24-GS/13-SL; Jake Freeman 27-GS/23-GS; Hunter Weaver 30-GS/37-GS/26-SL/27-SL; Tanner Dirstine 36-GS/33-GS/24-SL/23-SL; August Danielson 31-SL; and William Nero 39-GS.
