ALPINE FIS TEAM:

The dust is starting to settle on another great season and as usual the sprint to the finish line has been fast paced, challenging and fun filled. The beginning of this block started off with a trip to Sun Valley for a Devo series that started on the back of U.S. Senior Nationals. Due to the close proximity of the races, there were a large amount of U.S. Team and other elite level athletes from around the nation that stayed after the completion of U.S. Nationals to compete in our Devo race. This brought the level of competition of our series way way up to a Quasi-NorAM cup of sorts and sort of gave everyone in the region a chance to see what they were made of against a field that hosted the best in the nation on a snow surface that had been prepped well enough to be a World Cup.

Augustus Dain had a stand-out performance as one of the few in the field to ski well beyond their start position, moving from 80th to 31st in the first GS.

After that, everyone had 2 weeks before our final spring series race in Mammoth for Speed, and Palisades Tahoe for Tech kicked off. This allowed for the FIS Team to be home for a mix of forerunning and racing at the Last Chance and Snow Cup races, and a last couple of early mornings. We’ve been notching steady results throughout the season and have seen really good progress in everyone’s skiing so far. We’re excited to go into this last series with some passion and see how we can wrap things up!

~ Brennan Rubie
Head FIS Coach

ALPINE U16 TEAM:

It’s been a very busy month for the U16 team since the last update with groups going to the Tri Divisional Championships as well as Alaska for Regional Championships and most recently the Snow Cup.

Qualifying for the Tri Div was Sebe B., Alta B., Will B., Everet E., Avery J., Blake L., August M., Georgia M., Mia P., and Gwen S.  The conditions for the Super G race at Big Sky were windy and the snow was scarce, however, for many of our U16’s, this was a very successful race.  In the top 15 were August in 14th, Will in 12th, Alta in 10th, Sebe in 8th, and Blake in an impressive 4th.  The tech race of the Tri was held at Bridger Bowl where Sebe and Blake led the charge landing in 7th and 9th in the GS and 8th and 7th in the SL respectively.

Simultaneous to the Tri Div was the Western Regional U16 Championship at Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, AK. Skiing their way into regional championships was Quinn C., Calvin C., Devon H., Halle H., Molly J., and Fletcher P. The team went a day early to familiarize themselves with the venue but were met with terrible snow conditions that would persist through the entire series.

Starting with the SL on what was the worst surface I have seen in a long time, Devon went from 60th to 33rd and Halle went from 62nd to 20th on their first runs, unfortunately, they both did not cross the finish line on the second.  Quinn had an epic SL ending up 13th with the 7th fastest second run.

The surface did not improve for the GS making things extremely difficult for a fair race.  Nonetheless, Fletcher went from 72nd to 55th, Quinn 65th to 48th, Devon 75th to 37th and Calvin 49th to 33rd.

The snow went from bad to really bad for the two SG races, however, the SBSEF U16’s persevered in both.  Quinn moved up 11 and 23 places, Calvin 23 and 31, Devon 23 spots, Molly 19 and 31 places, and Fletcher jumped 15 and 2 places.  Halle had a career best getting on the podium in 2nd place in the first SG.  In the second GS she somehow managed to walk away from another horrendous crash, one of many she has taken this year!

Huge congratulations to ALL the SBSEF U16s on their Championships events!!!

The final event of the year for our team was the Snow Cup.  It would not have been a Snowbird SL had it not been cold, windy, and snowing!  For the first series this year every one of our U16’s who finished either stayed relative to their start or moved up significantly.  Top 20 in the Slaloms were Sebe in 11th, Will in 18th, Quinn 9th and 5th, Devon in 12th, Halle in 5th, and Gwen in a career-best SL in 16th.

The sun was out and the snow was nearly ideal for the GS races. Rounding out the top 20 was Quinn in 17th, Calvin inside the top 10 in 10th and 7th, Devon in 15th and 18th, Halle in 11th, Blake in 15th and another career best for Gwen in 14th.

The cowbell of the month goes to Gwen Sullivan for her persistence and her two career-best races at the Snow Cup!

It’s been a season filled with highs and lows for the U16 team, however, the highs have overcome the lows, tremendous progress has been made, and a ton of individual personal growth has been gained.  I truly mean it when I say this has been the best U16 team I’ve had!!!

~ Fritz Wood
Head U16 Coach

ALPINE U14 TEAM:

Snowbird’s U14 Team finished an impressive season at the Championship Events with fast skiing and big smiles. At the Tri-Divisional Championships in Montana, athletes raced SG at Big Sky, with the GS and SL events being held at Bridger Bowl. Heidi and Arlo led the charge for Snowbird’s U14s, Arlo winning the SL and finishing 12 in SG. Heidi finished in 2nd in SL, and raced to a 13th place finish in the GS, was 10th in the SG- with a first-place tie for the overall. Vonn had a fast week with a 5th place finish in the SL and GS, with an 11th place finish in SG. Kyla was top 15 in all 3 races, with Miles finishing top ten in GS and SL. Hendrick had a 9th place finish in the SL and Cody had 2 top ten results. Yasmeen finished 11th in SL- an overall impressive team effort through challenging conditions!

At Sundance for IMD Finals Maja and Winston shined with a 2nd place finish and a 3rd place finish in each of the GS and SL events- way to go for all of our Snowbird athletes at Sundance!

Western Region Championships were held at Grand Targhee this year, with a record 7 athletes who qualified this year. Liz shined with a 12th-place finish in the SG, 4th in the GS and 3rd in the SL. Axl was 5th in the SG, 4th in GS. Cedric was 6th in the SG, 7th in the GS and finished 2nd in the SL- awarding him 3rd overall in the Western Region! Liz and Cedric’s results qualified them both for the Whistler Cup- an international championship event for U14 and U16 athletes in British Columbia, Canada. Cedric had impressive results on the big stage with a 5th place finish in the GS, and 6th in SL. Liz had some really fast first runs- showing she can hang with some of the fastest in the world!

What’s even more impressive than the fast results this season was the progress made this season from each athlete- and the way each athlete cared for their teammates. This was our biggest group of U14s in over a decade (34 U14s), undoubtedly our fastest U14 team by results- but also one of our most cohesive. Our U14 staff could not be more proud of this incredible group of athletes!

~ Ben Reeder
Head U14 Coach

ALPINE JFAST TEAM:

Jfast finished the 2023 – 2024 season last weekend at the Family Duals. It was a great season with the perfect mix of epic powder, great training, and some incredible results.  Below are some of the season highlights:

Of the races held this year, 90% of the time SBSEF U10s and U12s stood on one of the podium steps, a total of 39 times this season. 25 athletes qualified for Intermountain Championships at Tamarack Mountain Resort in Idaho.

The SBSEF U10 group is one of the strongest in the division. In total, the Jfast crew qualified  8 U10s to Intermountain Champs, 4 Girls (Abbie Young, Elka Kerner, Olive Brower, and Violet Loeffler) and 4 boys (Bode Sekaran Chace Kunigenas, Forest Knight, and Gavin Kavanagh). Both the U10 girls and boys put at least one girl on the podium at every South Series race this year, Elka Kirner, Violet Leofler, Olive Brower, Elysia Moreno, Forest Knight, Chase Kunigenas, Gavin Kavanaugh, Crow Call, Callum Apple, and Body Sekaran all had at least one finish in the top 5 this season.

The SBSEF U12 contention was equally impressive. Three U12 girls (Farah Kaukab, Norah Comey, and Eva Widmer)  and 3 Boys (Quinn Webster, Gage Swanwick, Declan Morrissey) all had finished in the top five at either a south series or championship race. Nora Comey was this year’s IMD Dual SL champion, and Quinn Webster took home the Slalom title. For the third consecutive year, an SBSEF male athlete took home the overall title at Intermountain Champs. (Patrick Meirowitz ’22, Cedric Sullivan ”23, and Quinn Webster ’24) .

~ Bo Maciejko
Head Jfast Coach
Alpine Director

DEVO TEAM:
That’s a wrap on another amazing Devo season!  All the athletes worked hard and made improvements to their skiing.  We were lucky and had a lot of great Powder Days this year.  Some standout moments for the year include athletes making their first hike up Baldy.  There was a lot of complaining while making the trek up Baldy.  The complaints quickly turn into exhilaration and joy as the athletes start skiing.  All the coaches love hearing the athletes talk about how awesome their run down Baldy was and then asking when they can do it again.  Some other firsts for Devos are skiing the Cirque, Tiger Tail, and Bookends to name a few.  Our Devo Good Vibes Only Freeride comp was once again the highlight of the year for many kids.  Friday night before the comp we were close to pulling the plug on the event but we got lucky with the weather!  The wind didn’t stop us and Silverfox was covered in fresh snow.  There were some exciting moments with athletes hitting mustachio, and choosing lines in the trees.  We ended the season with our scavenger hunt on the Peruvian side of the mountain and a BBQ and dual race course.  It was a lot of fun to see everyone racing each other, coaches, and parents.

~ Jason Stone
Devo Head Coach
Posted in Alpine