Lakers, Wolverines dominate slopes at Alpine Meadows

Courtesy Harry Lefrak / Lefrakphotography.com
ALPINE MEADOWS, Calif. — The high school alpine race season was held at Alpine Meadows last week after heavy snowfall forced the event to be moved from Kirkwood Mountain Resort.
Fresh snow made for difficult conditions during last Thursday’s giant slalom competition, but a tough racecourse off of the resort’s Kangaroo run wouldn’t slow skiers from Truckee and North Tahoe as the two schools combined to post the five fastest times in the boys and girls’ races.
“It has been a challenging season for us so far with the storm cycles and race cancelations, so we are grateful to Palisades Tahoe/Alpine Meadows for hosting this race for our league, and they did an amazing job prepping the hill after the new snow,” said North Tahoe Coach Gretchen Sproehnle.
The North Tahoe boys’ team finished with six skiers in the top 10 and took first place with a high score of 244 points.
David Morken led the way for the Lakers, finishing in first place behind the two fastest runs of the day. Morken finished with a combined time of 1 minute, 9.73 seconds.
North Tahoe’s Jackson Rantz took third place with a total time of 1:10.98, followed by Cole Sanford in fourth place with a total time of 1:11.10, and Jackson Sanford in eighth place with a combined time of 1:14.06. North Tahoe also had Curtis Edmunds take ninth place with a total time of 1:14.08 and Andrew Van Prooyen take 10th with a total time of 1:15.60.
Morken then followed up last week’s win by taking first place Tuesday in slalom at Diamond Peak. He again had the fastest two runs, dominating the field on the way to first place by more than eight seconds. Morken finished with a combined time of 56.62 and was one of three Lakers skiers at the competition.
The Truckee boys’ team didn’t compete at Diamond Peak this week, but found success at the end of last week, claiming second place at Alpine Meadows with 230 points.
Luca Peterson led the Wolverines with a combined time of 1:10.56 to finish the giant slalom event as runner-up. Carson Koch finished fifth for Truckee with a total time of 1:11.97 and Aidan Peterson was seventh with a combined time of 1:14.03.
The Truckee girls’ team managed a first-place finish at Alpine Meadows, racking up a high score of 244 points.
Amber Hansford won the race to lead the Wolverines. She had the fastest two times of the day to finished more than three seconds ahead of the field with a combined time of 1:12.16.
Truckee’s Lylah Kelly took second place with a total time of 1:15.24, and teammate Evelyn Tebb gave the Wolverines a sweep of the podium with a combined time of 1:15.27 to take third place. Ellis Peterson finished in 10th place with a total time of 1:19.26.
Peterson was one of three Truckee racers to compete on Tuesday at Diamond Peak, and went on to take first place in the slalom event with a combined time of 1:07.94. Teammate Aspen Hall was sixth with a total time of 1:19.25.
The North Tahoe girls didn’t have any racers at this week’s event at Diamond Peak, but picked up a second-place finish at Alpine Meadows with a score of 235 points.
Mikayla Walsh led the Lakers with a combined time of 1:16.28 to take fourth place. Addison Jones was next in fifth with a total time of 1:16.65. Kate Geis was seventh with a combined time of 1:17.93, and Siduri Dunning was ninth with a total time of 1:19.23.
High school racing returns to Alpine Meadows on Wednesday for another round of giant slalom.
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