Even though the winter sports season is slowly coming to a close, Team Summit Colorado and Team Breckenridge Sports Club athletes continue to rise to the top of local and regional competitions.

Spearheading the performances for the two local sports clubs, Team Summit’s Stanley Buzek was crowned champion in the men’s slalom at the International Ski Federation’s Rocky/Central Championships at Keystone Resort on Feb. 26-27.

Buzek placed second overall in his first race and first overall in his final race in order to be crowned the overall slalom winner for the Rocky/Central region.

From Feb. 25-26, Team Summit had several athletes compete down the road at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area in a Rocky Qualifiers Series moguls competition. On Feb. 25, Georgia Kirschner took home the gold, Reece Combe was awarded a bronze medal and Kayla Broecker took fifth in the girls competition.

In the boys competition, Canyon Cupp took third while Alexander Walters placed fifth.

Additionally, Colum JungLing took first and Lucas White placed third in the devo moguls competition on Feb. 26.

At the last junior qualifier Nordic race in Aspen from Feb. 24-25, the Team Summit Nordic ski team had a host of impressive performances.

Leading the way for the team was Nina Schamberger who placed first overall in both the female U18/20 sprint classic race and the mass start skate race.

Following behind Schamberger, was Sophia Bertonneau in 12th place and Lili Zygulski in 21st place.

In the female U16 races, Kiera Stabile notched two finishes within the top five, placing fifth in the classic race and second in the skate race.

In the male U16 races, Carter Niemkiewicz placed sixth in the classic race and eighth in the skate race while James Sowers placed 12th and sixth, respectively.

Rounding out the Nordic performances for Team Summit was five team athletes in the top 30 of the male U14 skate race. Levi Ryan placed 11th, Danny Butler placed 15th, Crosby Hume placed 18th, Bodhi Adnan placed 21st and Mason Ramey placed 26th.

With the final junior national qualifier in the books, eight Team Summit athletes were recently named to the 2023 Rocky Mountain Nordic junior national team, which started competing on Monday, March 13, in Fairbanks, Alaska.

The eight Team Summit athletes include Sowers, Bertonneau, Niemkiewicz, Stabile, Kai Oppito, Landon Laverdiere, Parker Osborn and Brody Henning.

Alternates for the team include Team Summit’s Roan Varble and Niamh Nelson.

Team Breckenridge Sports Club

Over the first weekend in March, Team Breckenridge Sports Club big mountain athletes competed in two competitions.

On Friday, March 3, the team traveled to Eldora Mountain Resort to compete in the U12 big mountain competition. Athletes competed in Winter Park for another big mountain competition on Saturday, March 4, and Sunday, March 5.

At Eldora, two Team Breckenridge athletes notched top-five finishes. Charlie Zatz placed fourth in the U12 male competition with a score of 28.87, and Ayden Bosson placed fifth in the U12 female competition with a score of 25.33.

The competition at Winter Park saw similar results from Team Breckenridge with seven athletes finishing within the top 10.

On Day 1, Olivia Bassett placed third in the girls 12- to 14-year-old division, Gabi Bonta placed seventh in the boys 12- to 14-year-old division, Parker Kraft placed eighth in the boys 12- to 14-year-old division and Finn Buck placed second in the boys 15- to 18-year old division.

On the final day of competition, Mason Heflin led the boys 12- to 14-year-old division for Team Breckenridge with a third place finish and was followed by teammates Gavin Benedict in fourth and Thomas Bellavance in sixth.