Red Mountain hosted the U-16 Slalom and Giant Slalom provincials this week with some good results from local skiers.
Red Mountain Racer Soleil Patterson was consistent and fast, finishing in sixth place in three of her four races as over 120 skiers hit the Face and Back Trail runs of Red Mountain for the technical component of the B.C. U16 championship from Thursday to Sunday.
“It was a challenging field, with a top-notch race courses,” said RMR coach Phil Patterson. “It’s tough to be consistent on that hard slope. We had some finishes, some DNFs, but overall the three girls were very happy.”
The 14-year-old Soleil was the top finisher for her year, 1998, in the three races she completed, competing against skiers that, for the most part, are a year older.
“She was satisfied (with her results), there’s always room for improvement but if you look at it - the U16 race - 14-15-year-olds born in ‘97 or ‘98 she did accomplish first in I believe ahead of all the ‘98s,” added Patterson.
Arina Rora and Leine Groeger also competed for the Red Mountain Racers in four events over four days with each race, Giant Slalom or Slalom, a combined time of two runs.
The blue-bird skies and hard-packed snow made it ideal conditions for racing on the technical course.
Meg Cumming of Apex won the GS Thursday, with Grouse Mountain’s Antonia Wearmouth placing second, and Tyra Collombin from Fernie third. RMR’s Groeger also finished well with a 15th placing.
Ryley Seger of Whistler won the U16 boys slalom on Thursday, with teammate Max Peiffer placing second and Alex Roehrig of Big White third.
In Friday’s Giant Slalom, Mikayla Martin of Whistler led the way, followed by Stafanie Fleckenstein also from Whistler, and Courtney Hoffos in third. Soleil placed sixth, Groeger 22nd, and Rora came 29th
In the men’s slalom, Whistler took seven of the top-10 placings. Alexander Cameron led the Whistler onslaught with Max Kirshenblatt in second and Revelstoke’s Mitch Smith sneaking in for third.
On Saturday the U16 female’s skied slalom on Red’s Face while the male counterpart did the GS. It was Wearmouth’s turn to take gold with a combined time of 1:29:47 nipping Collombin by half a second. Hoffos took third for the second day in a row. Patterson was the top Red Mountain Racer in sixth, with Groeger in 26th.
James Crawford of Whistler won the GS clocking in a two-run total of 1:32.58, followed by Big White’s Ryan Moffat in second, and Whistler skier Cooper Yates third.
Wearmouth again captured first in the U16 female Sunday’s Slalom nipping Fleckenstein by a mere 4/100th of a second with a combined time of 1:40.22, while Cumming placed third and Patterson raced to sixth and was once again the fastest ‘98 racer.
The Red Mountain Racers have a busy schedule in the next month with the U14 provincials at Silver Star in Vernon this weekend, followed by the Whistler Cup Apr. 5-8, and the Kootenay zone finals in Fernie Apr. 13-14.