Summit Alpine ski team earns podium finishes at Loveland slalom race

Patrick Luk/Courtesy photo
While the Summit High School Alpine ski team is accustomed to racing in any condition, the team faced some bitter temperatures and a few inches of fresh snow at its first competition of the season at Copper Mountain Resort on Jan. 9.
Although the Tigers battled through the conditions to place second overall in both team races, the team enjoyed more favorable conditions at Loveland Ski Area on Thursday, Jan. 16. Serving as the team’s second slalom race of the season, the Summit girls Alpine ski team qualified more athletes to the state competition and secured the team’s first win.
Leading the performances for the Tigers was junior Mackenzie Cross. After missing a gate last week, Cross put together two, standout runs in order to win her first ski race of the year. Cross recorded a time of 50.75 seconds on her first run and 55.32 seconds on her second to combine for a total time of 1:46.07. Durango High School senior Mathilde Roskam took second (1:49.52) while Summit junior Kilee Blakely rounded out the podium in third (1:55.45).
With two athletes already on the podium, sophomore Zoe Nelson, sophomore Alex Stoyanova and senior Kristiana Stoyanova all secured finishes within the top 10. A week removed from wisdom tooth surgery, Nelson took seventh overall with a combined time of 2:00.09. Alex followed in ninth with a combined time of 2:00.95 while Kristiana took 10th in 2:01.58. Senior Sadie Slahetka took 16th (2:11.53) while sophomore Cameron Way barely missed the top 20 with a 21st-place finish (2:25.98). Senior Adelaide Brady and senior Kathleen Alexander rounded out the results for Summit by taking 23rd (2:34.66) and 26th (2:39.21), respectively.
The Summit girls Alpine ski team beat Evergreen by 10 points to win its first race of the season. Additionally, the team added two state qualifiers in the slalom event in Nelson and Kristiana Stoyanova.
“It was a lot nicer than the first race,” head coach Karl Barth said. “The girls showed off their depth. We had finals week this week, so we had a few boys and two of our really good girls not skiing. It was pretty cool to watch the depth they have. Mackenzie is on another planet and is fun to watch.”

The Summit boys also had a strong showing at Loveland. Claiming his second win of the season, junior Seth Montgomery took first overall by close to eight seconds. Montgomery recorded a time of 45.64 seconds on his first run and 49.97 seconds on his final run in order to combine for a total time of 1:35.61. Montgomery was followed by junior teammate Bergen Harberts in second with a time of 1:43.76. Nearly seven seconds behind Harberts, Durango senior Zach Oliver took third in 1:50.06.
Putting together a strong performance, senior Emmett Dalzell took 16th overall in a time of 2:05.30. Dalzell was then followed by junior Tommy Bellavance in 19th (2:10.89), sophomore Tucker Snyder in 23rd (2:19.40) and junior Benjamin Ryan in 26th (2:25.62).
Rounding out the top 45 was freshman Holden York in 31st (2:33.15), senior Chris Miller in 32nd (2:33.66), freshman Deloryn Thomas in 41st (2:47.84) and junior Anto Michas Deniau in 43rd (2:59.36).
The Summit boys Alpine ski team fell to Durango High School (169) by one point to take second overall (168) at its second-consecutive race. Dalzell was the lone Summit athlete to nab a boys slalom state qualifier, joining three of his teammates from the first race.
The Tigers will now prepare to compete in its first giant slalom race of the season at Keystone Resort on Friday, Jan. 24.
“I think a lot of them are just looking forward to skiing GS,” Barth said. “We have only been training slalom because of access early in the season and the first two races being slalom. I think they are all looking forward to skiing GS. Letting them run and getting a little speed up.”

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