Alpine Races at Echo Mountain

With race season in full swing, Western State Colorado University’s Alpine Ski Team headed to Echo Mountain for three races of only slalom. The weekend was packed with pure racing. The team arrived at Echo Mountain Saturday morning around 7:45am; everyone was expecting a long day ahead of them. With the first race starting at 9 am, the team didn’t have long to warm up and inspect the course. The boys went off first, followed by the girls on the opposite course. After the first run the boys and girls switched coursed and raced again, to save time. The officials decided to do this due to having two races in one day it would hopefully keep the teams from having to race in the dark.

 

Unfortunately with so much going on during the races on Saturday, the results were hard to calculate, not posted and ultimately incorrect. The second race started at 1pm for the boys and 1:45pm for the girls. With the sun setting and the athletes exhausted the final run of the final race of the day was run and everyone could finally relax. Western’s team left the mountain at 7pm that evening and was very happy to relax after almost 12 hours on the mountain.

Sunday morning the team again arrived at Echo Mountain at 7:45am. After such a long day previously the team was still sore and tired but very ready to bring the heat. The boy’s team again ran first, starting with Tyler Long, followed by Jack Ferrell and Jacob Saldi. After their first run Tyler was in 18^th, Jack in 21^st, and Jacob in 37^th. Next up the girls ran starting with Jamie Sitter, Carley Clegg, Carmen Smith, and Danielle Sweet. After first run Jamie was in 11^th, Carley in 23^rd, Carmen in 29^th, and Danielle in 43^rd. The boys and girls again switched coursed in order to save the time of a reset. After second run, the final results for the boys was Tyler in 11^th, Jack in 17^th, and Jacob in 27^th. The girls final result was Jamie in 8^th, Carley in 22^nd, Carmen in 27^th, and Danielle in 38^th. With such a long and grueling weekend, the team really pulled threw with amazing results. Keeping with the theme of every weekend racing, the team heads off to Telluride this coming weekend for two giant slalom races. -Carmen Smith