Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation alpine racers had an outstanding home weekend at the 20th annual Laura Flood Memorial giant slalom and slalom races Friday through Sunday, Jan. 22-24 on Baldy.
Overall J2 (ages 15-16) winners for the Intermountain Cup A/J1/J2 series were both SVSEF racers, Tanner Farrow and Nicole Roos. Rarely have two Sun Valley racers swept overall J2 honors in a long-standing event staged in memory of the SVSEF racer who died in 1990 at 19.
Farrow, 16, won the J2 men's division each day and placed second each race to SVSEF racer and four-time Baldy Hill Climb king Miles Fink-Debray, 21. Fink-Debray, winner of the Eric Hays Memorial GS Dec. 22 at Park City, prevailed easily by 1.26, 2.34 and 1.70 seconds.
Roos, 15, was nearly as dominant in J2 women. She was the overall winner by a wide 1.62-second margin over teammate Amanda Stelling in Friday's GS, then stormed back in Sunday's slalom with a third-place overall and second among the J2s.
Stelling was the J2 women's GS winner Saturday. Other SVSEF podiums went in J1 (17-18) to Bergen Palmer and Nina Hirner, and in J2 to Harlan Collins and Tanner Dirstine. Interestingly, Fink-Debray, Palmer and Farrow went 1-2-3 in Saturday's GS on Hemingway and Greyhawk.
There were 21 SVSEF racers in the 132-racer field. Baldy's Greyhawk, Cozy and Hemingway ski runs were the race locations. Chief of Race was Sun Valley's Ruben Macaya.
Class A: Miles Fink-Debray 1-GS/1-GS/1-SL (1st overall three times).
J1 men: Bergen Palmer 3-GS/1-GS/DNF-SL; Ryan Foster 9-GS/18-GS/7-SL; and Tyler Davis DNF-GS/16-GS/11-SL.
J1 women: Nina Hirner 3-GS/5-GS/2-SL; and Karlee Stagg 10-GS/12-GS/8-SL.
J2 men: Tanner Farrow 1-GS/1-GS/1-SL (2nd overall three times); Harlan Collins DNF-GS/2-GS/3-SL; Tanner Dirstine 3-GS/6-GS/4-SL; Connor Farrow 5-GS/13-GS/24-SL; Miles Sweek 7-GS/7-GS/DNF-SL; Colin Waycott 10-GS/20-GS/13-SL; Gardner Cord 23-GS/33-GS/17-SL; Dylan Carroll 25-GS/DNF-GS/21-SL; and Jordan Levin DNF-GS/15-GS/DNF-SL.
J2 women: Nicole Roos 1-GS/2-GS/2-SL (1st overall GS, 3rd overall SL); Amanda Stelling 2-GS/1-GS/DNS-SL; Cate Fairley 7-GS/17-GS/DNS-SL; Corrine Smith 18-GS/19-GS/21-SL; and Reta Flynt 23-GS/20-GS/20-SL.
Good results at Topolino Shootout
SVSEF coach Scott McGrew accompanied three second-year J3 (ages 13-14) racers—Kipling Weisel, KJ Savaria and Ben Kanellitsas—to the prestigious Topolino Shootout Jan. 23-24 at Park City, Utah.
They were among the top 20 J3 boys in the entire Western Region, and they proved it with a series of solid results topped by Sunday's 1-2-3 finish by Savaria, Kanellitsas and Weisel in the men's giant slalom.
McGrew said, "The Sunday sweep was really cool, unprecedented for any club to sweep during an event featuring the top kids in the West." Weisel ended up third overall among the men after the three SL and three GS runs. He won Saturday's GS with the fastest time of the series.
Here are their J3 placings among 20: Weisel 10-SL/4-SL/DQ-SL and 3-GS/1-GS/DNF-GS; Savaria 5-SL/8-SL/5-SL and 1-GS/16-GS/7-GS; and Kanellitsas DNF-SL/13-SL/14-SL and 2-GS/10-GS/4-GS.
Freestylers get ready for Baldy "Frenzy"
Heavy snow greeted the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation freestyle team in Utah last weekend. The Park and Pipe team tackled slopestyle at the Canyons while the mogul skiers were over at Deer Valley.
The weekend started a busy stretch for the SVSEF. They travel to Montana's Bridger Bowl this coming weekend for more moguls and then host the four-day "Freestyle Frenzy" Feb. 4-7 on Dollar Mountain, Warm Springs and Race Arena.
At Canyons, Tai Barrymore (2nd overall, 1st M1) and Colter Brehmer (4th overall, 3rd M1) skied well despite the snowy conditions which cut down speed on terrain park jumps. Others were Ben Parker (13rd, 4th M3), John Chrysikopoulos (21st, 7th M1), Adam Vorsteveld (27th, 6th M2) and Jordan Barrymore (44th, 8th M2).
The mogul team skied through powder on the Olympic "Champion" course. Hanging around the podium were Aunika Phillips (3rd overall, 1st F2) and Zana Davey (5th, 2nd F2). Others were SVSEF alum Nic Hanscom (2nd overall) and ex-SVSEF freestyler Austin Bourret (8th overall).
Rounding out the mogul team were R.J. Bracken (19th, 4th M2), Joey Richardson (25th, 5th M2) and Trevor Norris (4th, 11th M3).
Miles Fink-Debray en route to winning a Laura Flood Memorial race last weekend on Baldy.
Courtesy photo by Heather Black
