Alpine racers grab bronze at J2 Nationals
Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation racers were running gates with the best in the Western Region and also the best in the U.S. this past week.
Tanner Farrow (slalom) and Miles Sweek (downhill) made the podium with third-place results during National Championship J2 (ages 15-16) races at Sugarloaf, Maine. Farrow's bronze came in the March 3 slalom in which only 46 skiers finished two runs out of 77 starters. Sweek's bronze was in the 73-racer DH March 4.
Also at Sugarloaf, Farrow placed fourth in the March 6 giant slalom; Teagen Palmer was consistent with 20-16-35 placings in slalom, GS and super giant slalom respectively, and Nicole Roos had 29th SL.
Bergen Palmer placed 16th in Friday's men's super giant slalom at the Western Region Championships in northern Idaho at Schweitzer Mountain. He was 13th with Harlan Collins 24th in Monday's slalom. Amanda Stelling finished 14th in Friday's women's SG, and Willie Adicoff was 32nd SG.
J3 tech races in Utah
SVSEF J3s (ages 13-14) Kipling Weisel, Jordan Fitzgerald and Ben Kanellitsas logged podium finishes during Intermountain Division J3 Junior Olympic technical races March 6-7 at two Utah resorts.
Weisel bounced back from his Saturday slalom DNF on Snowbird's Wilbere Ridge Race Hill to win Sunday's giant slalom by 1.33 seconds on Park City's CB's Run. Kanellitsas was second in slalom Saturday and third behind Weisel in GS.
In the girls' races, Fitzgerald led SVSEF with a 15th place in Saturday's Snowbird slalom then climbed all the way to second place in Sunday's GS. In all, there were 13 SVSEF racers in the field of 58 boys and 41 girls running the gates.
SVSEF placings by race:
Girls: Jordan Fitzgerald 15-SL/2-GS; Natalie Bunting 20-SL/24-GS; Marcia Smith 19-SL/26-GS; Chloe Francois DSQ-SL/33-GS; Marlow Mizer DNF-SL/DNF-GS.
Boys: Kipling Weisel DNF-SL/1-GS; Ben Kanellitsas 2-SL/3-GS; Cole Caulkins 12-SL/7-GS; William Harder DNF-SL/11-GS; Taylor Adler 22-SL/19-GS; KJ Savaria DSQ-SL/DNF-GS; Lane Coulthard DNF-SL/25-GS; Tanner Josey DNF-SL/18-GS.
Super G and Kombi in Utah
Another 30 SVSEF youngsters in the J4 class (11-12) enjoyed super giant slalom and giant slalom in IMD races last weekend at Snowbasin, Utah.
Samantha Busby put up third-place SG finishes in the 54-skier girls' field Friday and Saturday on Wildcat run, and Haley Cutler was third in Sunday's giant slalom on City Hill.
For the boys, Austin Savaria won Saturday's SG by .24 seconds among 77 male finishers, and Savaria captured the bronze in another SG later Saturday afternoon. Yuri McClure and Jay Fitzgerald led the SVSEF boys in GS on Sunday.
Here are placings by race for the SVSEF kids at Snowbasin:
J4 boys: Austin Savaria 1-SG/3-SG/9-GS; Griffin Curtis 9-SG/7-SG/28-GS; Jay Fitzgerald 13-SG/30-SG/7-GS; Yuri McClure 16-SG/17-SG/6-GS; Kyle Maxwell 17-SG/37-SG/11-GS; Duncan Fuller 19-SG/11-SG/15-GS; Emmett Say 22-SG/18-SG/10-GS; Will Long 26-SG/27-SG/25-GS; Taylor Cooper 28-SG/20-SG; Michael Levy 31-SG/36-SG/23-GS; Gavin Shipley 35-SG/21-SG/19-GS; Trenor Gould 43-SG/35-SG/37-GS; Jack Rizzo 46-SG/42-SG/24-GS; Cade Street 50-SG/58-SG/55-GS; John Blackburn 52-SG/51-SG/51-GS; Carson Jones-Wilkins 58-SG/64-SG/57-GS; King Hopkins 61-SG/59-SG/65-GS; Clay Cutler 62-SG/62-SG/69-GS; and Will Snyder DNF-SG/13-SG/64-GS.
J4 girls: Samantha Busby 3-SG/3-SG; Haley Cutler 5-SG/5-SG/3-GS; Josie Allison 8-SG/11-SG/6-GS; Madison Milgard 9-SG/19-SG/12-GS; Megan Murphy 16-SG/20-SG/20-GS; Julia Vorsteveld 22-SG/15-SG/15-GS; Margot Griffith 24-SG/22-SG/36-GS; Olivia Wentzell 28-SG/25-SG/24-GS; Alexandra Black 32-SG/34-SG/48-GS; Olivia Weisel 33-SG/DNF-SG/38-GS; and Loni Unser 30-SG/43-GS.
Other results
Ketchum's Miles Fink-Debray, 22, had a big victory Feb. 21 at Aspen, Colo. when he won the super giant slalom portion of Nor-Am races there. He was .71 seconds ahead of the runner-up racer. Fink-Debray ended up on the podium again with a third-place in the Aspen super combined. He was 17th and 24th in downhill races, and 34th of 67 racers in the official U.S. national championship won by 22-year-old Travis Ganong Feb. 27 at Aspen.
Morgan Arritola of Ketchum ended up the second American, behind teammate Kikkan Randall, in the 2010 Viessmann FIS Nordic World Cup women's 15-kilometer pursuit race March 6 at Lahti, Finland. Arritola placed 29th overall, 29 seconds behind Randall and 3:08 off the winning Norwegian's time.
Ketchum's Biche Rudigoz was the second of three American men in Saturday's World Cup Ski Cross race at Branas, Sweden. He placed 43rd overall as teammate John Teller of Mammoth Lakes, Ca. had a career-best 11th place. The circuit resumes March 11 at Grindelwald, Switz.
Scott Krankkala of Hailey placed third in the 8.5km Nordic freestyle and first in the men's 3x5km relay at the USCSA Club Nationals held at Black Mountain in Maine March 9-13. Scott attends Western State College in Gunnison, Colo. and is a member of the Western State College Club Nordic team. He previously skied with the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Nordic team. He is the son of Todd and Nancie Krankkala of Hailey.
Birkebeiner addition
Hailey's Jim Santa, 49, was inadvertently omitted in the names published last week of Wood River Valley cross-country skiers finishing the 37th American Birkebeiner races Feb. 27 at Cable and Telemark, Wisc. Santa finished the 50-kilometer freestyle race in 2.30:22, good for 321st place out of the 3,646 skate skiers. He was the 297th man, and 39th of 462 skiers in the Men's 45-49 age group. Santa's pace was 3:00 per kilometer.
Valley skiers shine at Yellowstone Rendezvous
Wood River Valley cross-country skiers made up only 22 spots in Saturday's 624-skier field of the 31st annual Yellowstone Rendezvous Nordic event at West Yellowstone, Mt.
But they had impressive finishes, with 17 podium places and eight gold medal results.
The local Nordic racers did particularly well in the 25-kilometer classic race of the American Ski Marathon Series event. Jon Engen, 52, of Ketchum placed second in the 74-skier field and Del Pletcher, 65, was eighth at that distance.
Besides Engen and Pletcher, age class gold medalists from the valley at long distances included Liv Jensen and Tricia Swartling in the women's 50k freestyle event; Michael Dunham and Charley French in 25k classic; and Peter Maier in the 25k skate. Jensen, in fact, was the fastest woman in the 50k skate at 2.43:07.
Along with the eight first-place winners, Wood River boasted six silver medalists and three with the bronze. In all, there were 155 finishers at 50k skate, 107 in 25k classic, 184 in 25k freestyle, 89 in 10k, 60 at the 5k distance and 29 in the 2k.
Overall results, ages and class placings follow for the Rendezvous:
50k skate, male: 1—Leif Zimmerman, 26, Bozeman, Mt. 2.13:02. 19—Kris Thoreson, 52, 2.37:36 (3rd 50-54). 34—Jim McClatchy, 57, 2.49:11 (2nd 55-59). 58—Jon Holmquist, 56, 3.03:56 (4th 55-59). 62—Michael Stevens, 41, 3.06:09 (9th 40-44)—123 finishers.
50k skate, female: 1—Liv Jensen, 38, 2.43:07 (1st 35-39). 9—Tricia Swartling, 44, 3.00:49 (1st 40-44). 12—Susan Thoreson, 48, 3.09:38 (3rd 45-49). 13—Laura Theis, 26, 3.09:40 (2nd 25-29). 29—Kari Bohlke, 42, 4.27:14 (2nd 40-44)—32 finishers.
25k classic, male: 1—Dan Streubel, 38, Driggs 1.25:07. 2—Jon Engen, 52, 1.28:05 (1st 50-54). 8—Del Pletcher, 65, 1.34:39 (1st 65-69). 27—Michael Dunham, 60, 1.46:28 (1st 60-64). 44—Charley French, 83, 2.08:03 (1st 80-84). 50—Roger Miller, 66, 2.12:51 (6th 65-69)—74 finishers.
25k classic, female: 1—Shayla Swanson, 27, Bozeman, Mt. 1.30:45. 6—Tess O'Sullivan, 36, 1.47:22 (2nd 35-39). 11—Joni Cashman, 55, 2.05:43 (2nd 55-59). 14—Joney Otteson, 49, 2.08:33 (2nd 45-49). 17—Karen Mott, 49, 2.14:54 (3rd 45-49). 22—Francette Labatut, 56, 2.42:04 (4th 55-59)—33 finishers.
25k skate, male: 1—Hans Nygren, 19, Prior Lake, Minn. 1.05:20. 65—Matt Gervase, 60, 1.36:51 (6th 60-64). 74—Peter Maier, 69, 1.39:56 (1st 65-69)—110 finishers.
10k, male: 1—Graham Marousek, 14, Jackson Hole 32:44. 23—Sam East, 69, 45:48 (1st 65-69)—45 finishers.
World Masters Cup in Sweden
Local Masters skiers Norm Clark and Del Pletcher posted podium finishes in the 2010 World Masters Cup held at Falun, Sweden the final week of February. Over 1,000 athletes from 26 countries competed.
In the Men's Class 11, Clark gained two silver medals, in 5-kilometer skate (26:29) and 15k skate (1.15:05). He took the bronze in the 10k skate (59:44).
Pletcher, in Men's Class 8, won his silver medal in the 10k skate (32:31). He just missed the podium, in fourth place, in both the 15k skate (50:57) and 30k skate (1.38:16).
