Thirty members of the Sun Valley Nordic Ski Team traveled to Bozeman, Mt. Feb. 17-19 for the Western States Youth Ski Festival at Bohart Ranch, sponsored by the Bridger Ski Foundation.
Participants came from the Boise area, McCall, Bend (Ore.), Utah, Wyoming and of course Sun Valley.
Ranging in age from 7-14, the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation skiers competed in four different events during the weekend, according to Kelley Sinnott, SVSEF Head Prep Team coach and assistant program director.
Sinnott said Saturday was a busy first day starting with a skate race (1km for J5/6, 2km J4, 3km J3/J2-novice) followed by an obstacle course and a downhill course.
This year's downhill course was different from years past, boasting a "traditional telemark race" format. Competitors negotiated slalom turns, a jump, more slalom gates, then a full circle turn before skiing back up the hill to the same start/finish (younger skiers had a lower finish). She said, "It was not an easy course."
The obstacle course also had a tricky addition to the usual format. This year skiers had to shoot a target with a paintball gun in biathlon fashion as part of their race.
Sunday was simpler with just one race, a 15-second individual start classic race on the same distances and courses as the skate race.
Among SVSEF first-place finishers in their classes were Derek Thompson, Galena Hansen, Peter Wolter, Zach Williams, Lily Brunelle, Felix Gerlach, Kate Horowitz, Eva Grover and Logan Smith.
Sinnott said, "The Sun Valley skiers had a great weekend taking not only many individual podiums (top 5) but also carrying home the overall team title! More important was the tremendous showing from the Sun Valley athletes who were competing in their first travel races and for some their first timed races ever.
"The efforts and positive attitudes were tremendous and Sun Valley was definitely a contender for the Team Sportsmanship Trophy."
SVSEF results from Whitefish:
J2 (ages 14-15) boys
Obstacle course: 2—Derek Thompson 1:27.7.
Downhill: 1—Derek Thompson 1:03.5.
Skate: 1—Derek Thompson 12:34.
Classic: 1—Derek Thompson 14:18.
J2 (ages 14-15) girls
Obstacle course: 1—Galena Hansen 1:19.7.
Skate: 2—Galena Hansen 12:48.
Classic: 1—Galena Hansen 14:58.
J3 (ages 12-13) boys
Obstacle course: 2—Landon Nurge 57.2. 3—Cooper Roquet 59.1. 5—Ben Brunelle 1:03.3. 7—Carter Ros 1:04.5. 10—Zach Williams 1:09.5. 11—Peter Wolter 1:10.1. 13—River Vorse 1:15.7. 17—Taylor Koth 1:19.4. 18—Keene Morawitz 1:20.4.
Downhill: 2—Zach Williams 55.1. 3—Peter Wolter 55.4. 6—Carter Ros 59.5. 8—Ben Brunelle 1:01.7. 13—Landon Nurge 1:06.5. 14—Taylor Koth 1:06.5. 15—River Vorse 1:07.1. 16—Cooper Roquet 1:07.5.
Skate: 1—Peter Wolter 9:29. 2—Zach Williams 9:35. 8—Keene Morawitz 10:40. 10—Carter Ros 10:43. 12—Ben Brunelle 10:50. 14—River Vorse 11:06. 16—Taylor Koth 11:21. 17—Cooper Roquet 11:27. 23—Landon Nurge 11:58.
Classic: 1—Zach Williams 11:17. 2—Peter Wolter 11:41. 8—Taylor Koth 12:43. 10—Carter Ros 12:49. 12—Ben Brunelle 12:53. 15—Keene Morawitz 13:15. 18—Cooper Roquet 13:54. 19—River Vorse 13:56. 24—Landon Nurge 15:23.
J3 (ages 12-13) girls
Obstacle course: 3—Sophia Coplin 1:13.5.
Downhill: 12—Sophia Coplin 1:19.3.
Skate: 17—Sophia Coplin 13:44.
Classic: 20—Sophia Coplin 19:26.
J4 (ages 10-11) boys
Obstacle course: 11—Brogan Ros 1:28.3. 17—Joe Hall 1:37.0. 20—Davis Ros 1:39.9.
Downhill: 9—Brogan Ros 1:20.0. 15—Joe Hall 1:26.5. 16—Davis Ros 1:28.6.
Skate: 14—Brogan Ros 8:09. 15—Davis Ros 8:26. 18—Joe Hall 8:43.
Classic: 16—Davis Ros 12:05. 18—Brogan Ros 12:44. 19—Joe Hall 13:06.
J4 (ages 10-11) girls
Obstacle course: 1—Lily Brunelle 1:15.2. 3—Jenna Nurge 1:19.9. 5—Ella Wolter 1:22.9. 11—Chloe Tanous 1:38.9. 15—Laine Allison 1:41.6. 22—Denali Stevens 2:11.5.
Downhill: 1—Lily Brunelle 1:08.5. 2—Jenna Nurge 1:09.6. 3—Ella Wolter 1:10.0. 7—Chloe Tanous 1:15.7. 17—Laine Allison 1:28.4. 22—Denali Stevens 1:59.8.
Skate: 3—Lily Brunelle 6:42. 8—Ella Wolter 7:18. 10—Jenna Nurge 7:28. 15—Chloe Tanous 7:47. 19—Laine Allison 8:29. 22—Denali Stevens 10:59.
Classic: 4—Lily Brunelle 8:34. 9—Ella Wolter 9:12. 14—Chloe Tanous 9:56. 15—Jenna Nurge 10:05. 17—Laine Allison 10:06. 22—Denali Stevens 13:43.
J5 (ages 8-9) boys
Obstacle course: 1—Felix Gerlach 1:13.9. 4—Cash Dart 1:16.7. 9—Jack Horowitz 1:32.7. 18—Ryan Carnes 2:18.3.
Downhill: 5—Jack Horowitz 39.2. 6—Cash Dart 39.4. 11—Felix Gerlach 43.0. 21—Ryan Carnes 1:17.2.
Skate: 5—Cash Dart 3:44. 11—Jack Horowitz 4:15. 14—Felix Gerlach 4:22. 24—Ryan Carnes 6:26.
Classic: 4—Cash Dart 4:36. 14—Jack Horowitz 5:52. 15—Felix Gerlach 6:06. 19—Ryan Carnes 7:23.
J5 girls
Obstacle course: 1—Kate Horowitz 1:31.0. 2—Eva Grover 1:35.4. 7—Lucy Ludwig 2:19.7.
Downhill: 1—Eva Grover 39.5. 2—Kate Horowitz 43.5. 4—Lucy Ludwig 51.4.
Skate: 3—Eva Grover 4:23. 4—Kate Horowitz 4:28. 9—Lucy Ludwig 5:37.
Classic: 4—Eva Grover 6:01. 7—Kate Horowitz 6:46. 10—Lucy Ludwig 7:03.
J6 girls
Obstacle course: 2—Logan Smith 1:44.9. 7—Kaia Wolfrom 2:52.9.
Downhill: 1—Logan Smith 41.3. 7—Kaia Wolfrom 1:26.4.
Skate: 1—Logan Smith 4:16. 6—Kaia Wolfrom 7:43.
Classic: 2—Logan Smith 5:48. 5—Kaia Wolfrom 7:40.
