Summit Alpine ski team secures pair of 2nd-place finishes at first race of the season

Patrick Luk/Courtesy photo
With a dusting of fresh snow on the race course, the Summit High School Alpine ski team had its first competition of the season at Copper Mountain Resort on Thursday, Jan. 9.
Wanting to begin the season by securing state qualifiers and growing reacquainted with skiing fast on a race venue course, Summit performed well in the slalom race.
Leading the performances in the boys slalom was defending state champion in the slalom and giant slalom — Seth Montgomery. In his first race of his junior year, Montgomery was nothing short of dominant.
Displaying that he is one of the favorites to win state in the slalom again this winter, Montgomery cruised down the slope at Copper, passing through gates with ease. On his first of two runs, Montgomery clocked a time of 56.92 seconds to lead the field.
At the top of the results already, Montgomery sealed his first win of the season, dropping over two seconds from his first run time. With a combined time of 1:51.01, Montgomery handily won the slalom race by over nine seconds.
Middle Park’s Alex Guziur took second in 2:00.70 before Summit High School junior Bergen Harberts rounded out the podium in third. Harberts recorded a time of 1:03.13 on his first run before clocking a time of 58.94 on his second run (2:02.07).
Summit sophomore Wyatt Lyman was the next Tiger to finish within the top 20. Lyman clocked a total time of 2:29.46 to rank 16th overall out of the 52 athletes who completed both runs. Four spots behind Lyman was senior Emmett Dalzell in 20th place (2:36.47).
With four athletes within the top 20, Summit put an additional seven athletes within the top 40. Senior Chris Miller finished in 24th (2:39.68), senior Mason McEntire took 26th (2:41.31) and sophomore Tucker Snyder finished in 27th (2:44.16).
Junior Benjamin Ryan barely snuck into the top 30 by placing 29th (2:46.39) before junior Michael Citak took 33rd (2:48.16). Freshman Holden York placed 36th (2:54.31) and Asher Check-Krigman placed 37th (2:55.15).
“Shoutout to Chris for being the most improved, Mason for finishing both runs and 26th in his first Alpine race and welcome back Michael Citak, who raced for the first time since breaking his femur and finished 33rd,” head coach Karl Barth said.
The consistent races from the boys Alpine ski team resulted in a second-place finish (166) at the first race of the season.The Middle Park boys took first (171) and Nederland rounded out the podium in third (163).

After sweeping the team race at state last year, the Summit girls Alpine ski team started the new winter season by once again displaying the team’s deep roster full of talented and hard working skiers.
Junior Kilee Blakely executed the course the best among her Summit teammates, recording a time of 1:08.41 through the first set of tight gates before dropping her time to 1:04.21 on her second run.With a combined time of 2:12.62, Blakely finished third overall.
Preceding Blakely in the results was Middle Park sophomore Jess Heid (2:09.35) and Middle Park senior Rylie Riggs (2:09.86).
Soon following Blakely was a strong pack of Summit skiers. Taking sixth was freshman Lily Foss who had close to a five second differential between her two runs and recorded a time of 2:13.89.
Coming off a strong season last year, Mackenzie Cross started her junior campaign by taking seventh (2:15.31). Cross recorded the second fastest time of the day behind Montgomery (58.38) on her second run, but missing a gate on her first run cost her valuable time and spots in the final results.
Junior Claire Jackson put together a strong performance, finishing a spot behind Cross in eighth (2:15.67).
Two more Summit athletes crashed into the top 15 in freshman Iyla Kuruvila and sophomore Alex Stoyanova. The two underclassmen finished right next to each other in the results with the younger Kuruvila taking 11th (2:19.41) and Stoyanova finishing in 12th (2:19.77).
Three additional athletes made up the top 45. Sophomore Deirdre Dalzell placed 27th (2:41.53), senior Kathleen Alexander finished in 34th (2:56.55) and senior Adelaide Brady took 42nd (3:13.40).
According to Barth, Dalzell had one of the most impressive performances compared to last year, displaying a new edge of aggressiveness.
Although five athletes failed to complete one of their two runs, the Summit girls Alpine ski team managed to put six athletes within the top 15 in order to place second overall (167). Middle Park won the race (175) while Evergreen finished in third (158).
After the first competition, nine athletes successfully qualified for state. On the boys side, Montgomery, Harberts and Lyman qualified for the final competition of the season. Blakely, Foss, Cross, Jackson, Kuruvila and Stoyanova qualified for the girls.
The Summit Alpine ski team will now prepare to compete in a slalom race at Loveland Ski Area on Thursday, Jan. 16.

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