December 13-15, the U16 alpine team headed to Loveland to compete in their first races of the season. To keep things exciting and motivating for the racers, this fall it was approved by the Age Class Committee to have athletes compete in tiers. These tiers are named as follows: World Cup (Top 15 each gender), Europa Cup (following 20 athletes in each gender), and NorAm Cup (remaining athletes). The initial ranking of athletes is based on an ITS of USSS points in SL and GS, and as the season progresses, any athlete who wins their tier will move up one, and the one who is last after a race series moves down. The hope with this system is to encourage competitiveness and help motivate athletes as they see their progress rewarded. To keep things simple while writing these race updates, the coaches will provide the overall results, but will share when people move up a tier and describe podium tier results in image captions.
The Loveland SYNC Cups, held from December 13 to 15, were the first races to use this new method. Our U16 alpine racers competed in two slalom events and one giant slalom. Excitement was in the air by the team, and some first race jitters, but the team stepped up and performed admirably despite early-season struggles with Mother Nature. The U16 coaches are excited for what is ahead for this crew and proud of their achievements this past weekend.
December 13, Women’s slalom:
1st race: 5th Miya Lippuner, 7th Chloe Kafka, 26th Rylee Thomsen, 40th Brielle Walsh
2nd race: 12th Brielle Walsh, 20th Ella Orton, 24th Rylee Thomsen
December 14, Men’s slalom:
1st race: 12th Felix Hadley, 15th Bretton Fleming
2nd race: 7th Reed Pope, 9th Soren Shepherd, 12th Ryder Roth, 21st Bretton Fleming, 23rd Thacher Starrett
December: 15, Giant Slalom:
Women: 9th Rylee Thomsen, 13th Chloe Kafka, 19th Brielle Walsh, 23rd Ella Orton, 27th Miya Lippuner
Men: 5th Soren Shepherd, 8th Felix Hadley, 11th Ryder Roth, 13th Jonathan Nichols, 22nd Luke Beauregard, 23rd Bretton Fleming, 24th Thacher Starrett
Photos by Coach Ann West
Women’s GS race NorAm Tier Podium: 1st Chloe Kafka (SSWSC), 2nd Ana Jaramaz (AVSC), 3rd Alessandra Lauro (SUM)
Men’s GS race NorAm Tier Podium: 1st Bretton Fleming (SSWSC), 2nd Thacher Starrett (SSWSC), 3rd Matteo Pacini (SUM)
Men’s GS race Europa Cup Tier Podium: 1st Cody Martz-Feige (SSCV), 2nd Ryder Roth (SSWSC), 3rd Jackson Tankersley (SSCV)
