Madison McLeish managed to reach the top of the podium while Michael Bansmer returned for the third-straight day as the GMC Cup wrapped up at Red Mountain on Monday.
The four days of men and women’s slalom and giant slalom racing attracted some of the top young skiers in Canada and the U.S. for the stop on the developmental circuit.
As expected one of Canada’s rising stars came to the forefront in Monday’s women’s slalom.
Canadian world junior team member Madison McLeish of Canmore topped the field for the first time at Red.
“My slalom has been pretty inconsistent this season so this was a nice way to wrap-up this competition,” the 18-year-old McLeish, who posted two top-15 results at the world juniors in early February, said in a press release.
Meanwhile, it was the third-straight win for American Michael Bansmer, who also won the men’s GS Sunday and the men’s slalom on Saturday.
He didn’t finish Friday’s men’s slalom, but he would have been hard-pressed to top the performance of Sasha Zaitsoff.
The Red Mountain Racers’ grad topped the field on Friday by over two seconds.
“I was really happy with both my runs,” he told reporters on Friday. “They were solid. I’ve had some trouble putting together two strong runs at times but to win here at home adds to my best season so far.”
He added a fourth-place finish in Sunday’s GS to highlight local results.
Don Stevens, president of the Red Mountain Racers, said the entire event went off smoothly thanks to the volunteer turnout.
“Volunteer turn out was great with many people from the community coming out to help,” he said. “And volunteer parents showed up from many of the race clubs in western Canada.
“Red Mountain Resort was very accommodating providing grooming when required, early lift loading and space for the meetings.”
Stevens added the efforts of Grant Smith, as a leader and volunteer recruiter, as well as Steve Hilts, who helped with the timing set up and organization, were invaluable to the event.
“Both of these guys were working on the race course by 6 a.m. every morning.”
Stevens added the work paid off as the event attracted a bevy of talented skiers.
“The competition was very good with racers from the U.S., BC Ski Team, Alberta Ski Team and many other clubs in western Canada.”
Among the local contingent, German Hansi Schwaiger, a foreign member of the RMR, had an outstanding four days with a fourth and fifth in the slalom races and a fifth and 14th in the GS.
Rossland’s Steven Fry had a solid 17th-place finish in Saturday’s slalom and posted 34th and 30th results in the GS.
Teammate Iain McMillan was 43rd in Saturday’s slalom and 58th and 56th in the two GS races.
Richard Gash of Britain, another international member of the club, finished all four races cracking the top-50 twice.
The two Red Mountain Racer women had tough luck on their home hill.
After two incomplete runs in the women’s GS, Una Trivanovic was 235th and 29th in the women’s slalom. Kali Butler managed to post only one result, which left her 32nd in Saturday’s GS.
Other notable results from the weekend saw Calgarian Sean Alexander placed second in three races while Sarah Elliot of Oyama posted four top-five finishes including a first in Friday’s women’s GS
American Vanessa Berther was second to Elliot on Friday and finished first in Saturday’s GS and Sunday’s slalom before wrapping up her stay at Red with a third-place finish in Monday’s slalom.
The next stop on the GMC Cup circuit is this weekend at Camp-Fortune, Que.