Morning Star Staff
The Vernon Ski Club and Silver Star Mountain Resort are hosting the U14 Provincial Championships starting Thursday with more than 200 racers.
“We look forward to the opportunity to compete in the provincial championships on our home hill,” said Vernon U14 head coach Andrew Lambert.
The U14 and U12 racers competed in Giant Slalom last weekend at Sun Peaks Resort in Kamloops, experiencing rare hard snow.
“We had an outstanding weekend of racing at the Sun Peaks zone series,” said Lambert. “We had a number of podium results and the entire team put forward a strong effort.”
U14 Makena Kersey left it all on the course finding the top of the podium in all three starts and finishing more than two seconds ahead of the next racer in most races.
Gerrit vanSoest put it out there to find two silver and a gold in a tough men’s division. Emma Lockwood and Caele Kassa each found the podium in bronze with best of season skiing for both.
Best of the weekend for first year U14 ladies were: Rane Smith (6), Nadia Jones (10), Katrina Fink (9). On the boys side best finishes were Braden Kersey (17), Andrew Schmidt (21), Max Stepphun (19) and Ken Anderson (30).
Said U12 head coach Rodger Poole: “The U12 racers are having a great season. At this ‘Learn to Train’ stage of development, the focus is on establishing effective movement patterns that will serve them well as they progress as ski racers in the years to come.”
Best of the weekend for U12 girls was 8th for Natasha Jones, 11th for Ella Mills and 16th for Milan Stepphun. On the boys side, Parker Monroe skied to 8th, with Chris Kersey 13th, Austin Armanini 14th, and Cole Ogasawara 17th.
Meanwhile, 13 Silver Star Freestyle Club athletes endured the rain and fog to compete in the second Timber Tour event hosted by Whistler/Blackcomb. The results were as follows: Zachary Fenn took silver for Big Air in the M18 category; Max Fenn placed 5th, Hayden Boderick 6th and Stirling Peters 7th for the M16 in Big Air; Jamie Rykuiter placed 4th in Slopestyle and Moguls in the F16 category.
The final Timber Tour event goes March 13-15 15 at Silver Star Mountain.
