A day after the Summit High School girls soccer team welcomed Battle Mountain High School to Tiger Field for a 4A Western Slope-League battle, the Tigers boys lacrosse team hosted the Huskies on Friday, March.
Much like the Summit High School Nordic ski team, the Alpine ski team is patiently awaiting more snow in order to start on-snow training for the 2021-22 season. For now, both teams are stuck doing.
Photo by Jason Connolly / Jason Connolly Photography
Summit High School Alpine ski assistant coaches John McMurtry and Dylan Nicoletti heard the chatter among the 70-plus high school boys skiers, who were getting ready to race on a menacing 62-gate slalom course Thursday at Loveland Valley Ski Area.
It was a course McMurtry, a former U.S. Alpine Ski Team coach, said was “like a World Cup” with “really hard turns” where “you don’t feel good going down.”
“It seemed like the attitude up top was, ‘We’re cranking it out,’” Nicoletti said. “You’re not going to like it. It’s not going to feel good. But if you can crank it out back and forth, you have to be ready to fight all the way down.”
Photo by Jason Connolly / Jason Connolly Photography
Michael Cheek and Victoria Uglyar raced to the best finishes for the Summit High School Alpine ski team at the Friday, March 5, meet in Beaver Creek.
Racing on a warm day on the long Bear Trap giant slalom course at Beaver Creek Resort, Cheek finished in fifth place, followed by Tiger teammates Gavin Masters (13th), Jackson Campbell (20th) and Wyatt Huston (21st).
Uglyar’s ninth-place finish led a shorthanded, young girls team on the day, ahead of Lucia Hoffman (18th), Bryton Ferrari (20th) and Sophia Henry (22nd).
Summit head coach Karl Barth described the races as a good tuneup for next week’s state championships at Loveland Ski Area, with giant slalom scheduled for Thursday and slalom Friday. Barth said several of the Tigers’ top skiers didn’t race in the morning event at Beaver Creek because of scholastic commitments, as all of the Tigers skiers are expected to race during school hours next week at Loveland.
Photo by Jason Connolly / Jason Connolly Photography
It was so cold at Ski Cooper near Leadville on Thursday that Summit High School Alpine ski head coach Karl Barth described the conditions as “skiing in a giant meat locker.” When Barth put his hands back into his coat after wielding the drill while setting up the course’s gates, it felt like his hand warmer had turned into a cold rock.
Nonetheless, the Tigers skiers took to a direct, long, fast slalom course in the program’s first races at Ski Cooper in as long as Barth could remember. And in the end, freshman Ella Snyder once again impressed en route to a win in the girls races.