Cross Country

SSWSC XC*Snow Mountain Ranch JNQ

SSWSC XC Team raced recently at the Snow Mountain Ranch in Granby. It had been ten years since a Rocky Mountain Nordic Club held a Junior National Qualifier at Snow Mountain. Snow Mountain Ranch is one of the paramount Nordic centers in the country.
On a side note, Olympian and SSWSC Alumni, Todd Lodwick, is now Snow Mountain’s Nordic Director.

Races began last Friday, with light snow falling throughout the day, making for a quintessential winter experience. All races on Friday were competed in the Classic technique in interval starts. Grey Barbier over powered the U16 male field, winning by 57 seconds in the 5k. He was followed by teammates Henry Magill 2nd, Campbell McLaren 4th, and Tristan Thrasher 9th, and Luke Bedell 27th. In the female 5k race, U16, U18, +U20 were grouped together. Alumni, and D.U. skier, Sidney Barbier notched a 2nd place overall finish, trailing Vail’s Rose Horning by 11 seconds. Kiri May was SSWSC’s top U16 finisher in 7th and 17th overall. She was followed by: Grace Olexa 8th/19th, Nikita Andre 9th/20th, Tinsley Wilkinson (U18) 22nd, Heidi Andre (U18) 24th, Ruby May (U18) 26th, Karina Romanova (U20) 29th, Norah Graham 17th/37th, Suzy Magill (U18) 38th, Alena Rossi 20th/41st, Anna Rhodes 21st/46th. In the male U18/20 10k race, SSWSC XC athletes showed prominence. Trey Jones finished second, 42 seconds behind winner, Aspen’s Anders Weiss. Griff Rillos grabbed the final podium finish in third. Thomas Cooper finished a solid 10th on the day. SSWSC XC U14 females raced well. Tig Loomis captured second place, Shea Rossi in 5th, and Shea Sias in 6th. In the boys U14 race Fisher Gibson finished 25th and teammate Henry Patten came in 32nd.

The sister duo of Georgia Bishop (U12) and Beatrice Bishop (U10), were untouchable, winning their respective races. Maren Sachs took 17th place and Klara Novotny finished 21st in the U12F race. Axel Loomis and Forest Bishop finished 9th and 11th in the U8/10M race.

Saturday arrived in bluebird fashion, with cold air, cold snow, but abundant sunshine. Conditions were ideal. All races were Mass Start in the Skate/Freestyle Technique. The race day started with the U16 boys skiing a 5k loop. This was our strongest showing of the day, with the trio of, Grey Barbier, Tristan Thrasher, and Campbell McLaren, finishing 1-2-3, for the podium sweep. Luke Bedell crossed the line in 27th. Next up was the U16 girl’s 5k race. Top results were garnered. Grace Olexa 2nd, Nikita Andre 5th, Kiri May 12th, Norah Graham 14th, Haley Brabec 18th, Alena Rossi 19th, Anna Rhodes 21st.
The U18/20 girls got to race a 10k and test their endurance fitness. U.S. National Team Nordic Combined member, Alexa Brabec, was SSWSC’s top finisher in 5th. She was followed by: Sidney Barbier 8th, Tinsley Wilkinson 13th, Ruby May 14th, Suzy Magill 17th, and Karina Romanova 19th.
The boy’s U18/20 10k, came down to a four way sprint in the final 100 meters, with Anders Weiss from aspen for the win, followed by SSWSC’s Trey Jones 2nd and Griff Rillos 3rd. Thomas Cooper raced well to finish 8th.

SSWSC XC athlete, Tig Loomis skied away from the U14F group to take the win by 20 seconds. They were followed by teammates, Shea Rossi 6th, Shea Sias 17th.

In the U14 boy’s 3k race, SSWSC XC top finisher was Quinn Dressen in 13th. He was followed by: Braden Fleming 28th, Lynx Beauregard 31st, Silas Setter 32nd, and Henry Patten 33rd.

Georgia Bishop again showed her dominance, winning the U12F 3k race by 31 seconds. Maren Sachs and Hadely Spillane skied well, finishing 19th and 20th. Klara Novotny in 24th and Bella Blackwell in 30th.

On the U12 boy’s side, SSWSC athletes had impressive results: Bode Rhodes 5th, Connor Devin 6th, Sawyer Landers 8th, Jackson McLaren 13th, Fisher Beauregard 14th, Isaac Weinberg 19th, and Ben Becker 20th.

Beatrice Bishop again took the win the U10F race. Axel Loomis and Forest Bishop jumped on the podium for the U8M race, in 2nd and 3rd place.

Suzy Magill

Podium Sweep U16 boys

Griff Rillos

Moguls

It has been an exciting couple of weeks for TeamSteam.

The Comp Series event in Aspen over MLK allowed RQS move up skiers so Scotty Kane and Shane Mariano both had the opportunity to compete on a more challenging course than they’re used to-and they rose to the challenge with Shane placing 25th and Scotty placing 41st. Xander Tatar-Brown won the event with Collin Hassel placing third. For the ladies, Anabel Ayad earned 2nd place, Ella Walker was 4th, Izzy Powell placed 8th and Megan Faherty was 25th.

Anabel Ayad, Ella Walker, Xander Tatar-Brown, Jaime Maudsen and Collin Hassel headed to Deer Valley for the first NorAm of the season on the famed Champion run. Competing against some of the best mogul skiers in North America, the TeamSteam athletes came away with some good results and lots of gained knowledge. Anabel Ayad took 12th in her first NorAm. Ella experienced some pole breakage issues while Xander was 35th and Collin, 40th. SSWSC alum Landon Wendler ended the day in 5th in singles and went on to place 4th in the duals competition. SSWSC alum Avital Shimko Carroll placed 5th in singles as well. The FIS skiers headed home for a couple of days and are now in Apex, Canada for the next NorAm.

The rest of the U17/U19 squad headed to Vail this past week-end to ski the brand new, Dark Side mogul run on Vail’s Golden Peak. The venue is quite nice and the moguls were challenging, just like a competition run should be. Izzy Powell ended the day as the top TeamSteam competition, placing 3rd. Abby Mclarnon, a first year RMD skier, placed 5th, Zoe Schaab was 7th, Mia Satkiewicz placed 14th, Megan Faherty 16th and Leah Sullivan was 20th. For the men, Liam Siefken placed 22nd and Teus Tynelius-Deering earned 54th. On duals day, Leah Sullivan persevered and ended up 4th. Zoe Schaab placed a hard-earned 7th.

This weekend, TeamSteam is hosting an RQS/DEVO event on Bashor Bumps, Saturday and Sunday. Come out and cheer for the hardworking U15/U13/U10 mogul skiers!

And don’t forget to tune in for the Olympics Mogul Event from Beijing. SSWSC alums Jaelin Kauf and Olivia Giaccio will be there, ready to leave it on the hill!

Alpine

The U16 Alpine Team was once again on the road, this time headed to Winter Park for the Mason Shepard Memorial SYNC GS races.  They were met with blue skies and great snow conditions as they sought to achieve some of their individual best results yet through some fun, technical, and challenging GS courses.

On the women’s side, they competed in 2 GS races on Saturday, and we had back-to-back podiums with Abby Olson taking 1st place in each race, and Logan Grosdidier doing the same with her 2nd place finishes.  Other notable results were Katharina Cosby finishing in 11th and 12th in each race, and Hazel Fernley in 18th and 19th.

On the men’s side, we had Caman Beauregard finishing 8th in the first race and Caspian Troan moved up into 10th overall after a solid win on the second run.  Other notable U16 finishes in the first race are Nicholas Bradford in 13th, Lachlan Brady in 17th, Owen Wither in 19th, and Kade Lawton in 20th.  In the second race of Sunday, we had a stronger showing with Curtis Zanni finishing 2nd overall after winning the 2nd run, and Caman Beauregard earning his first U16 podium with a 3rd place finish.  Rounding out the top 20, the U16 crew had Nicholas Bradford in 10th, Owen Wither in 13th, Lachlan Brady in 16th, Willem Bradford in 17th, and Kade Lawton in 18th.

After a solid month of racing, the U16 alpine team gets to spend a few weeks at home, focusing on their schoolwork and revisiting some of the basics of skiing racing, with more progressive training sessions and a few Strength and Condition sessions to attack the rest of the season.