Six Wood River Valley alpine ski racers joined the field of 226 for last week's Western Region FIS (International Ski Federation) Elite Spring Series April 9-14. There were 12 races staged over six days.
It was an up-and-down week of weather, starting with ideal conditions for the super giant slaloms. Very tough slalom weather and a beautiful day to start the giant slaloms followed. The final day of GS offered challenging weather and course conditions once again.
There was a stacked group on both the men's and women's side of the seed. Local competitors were Lauren Eder, Hailey Duke, Alisa Durkheimer, Robin Sarchett, Hunter Storey and Miles Fink-Debray.
For most athletes it was the season finale, while a few are heading to Norway for a major six race series April 19-25, according to the Far West Skiing Web site. But overall the racing was top notch—the Mammoth race crew earning big kudos for pulling off all 12 starts to give every athlete a last chance to improve points heading into the 2007-08 racing season.
Hailey's Eder (16-SG/20-SG, 20-GS/11-GS and 21-SL/13-SL) and Sun Valley native Duke (7-GS/24-GS and 4-SL) had the best results among locals. Duke's fourth place came in Saturday's slalom. Eder was 11th in Friday's giant slalom.
Other overall placings for local racers: Fink-Debray (40-SG/31-SG, 19-GS/27-GS and 15-SL/19-SL); Sarchett (29-GS and 18-SL/29-SL); Storey (36-GS and 22-SL/36-SL); and Durkheimer (67-SG/65-SG, 72-GS/84-GS and 63-SL).
Spring Series race winners were Will Brandenburg, Travis Ganong and Leanne Smith twice (SG); Andrew Phillips, Brandenburg, Stacey Cook and Katie Hitchcock (GS); Brandenburg, Phillips, Caitlin Ciccone and Laurel Carter (SL).
