Posted by: thepinetree on 02/08/2011 08:47 AM
Updated by: Kim_Hamilton on 02/08/2011 10:59 AM
Expires: 01/01/2016 12:00 AM
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Great Performances, Beautiful Course and Near Perfect Weather for JO Qualifier at Northstar at Tahoe ~ With Hundreds of Photos and Video~by John Hamilton
Truckee, CA...Northstar At Tahoe rolled out the red carpet for the USSA Junior Olympic Qualifier in Giant Slalom this last weekend. Close to 200 of the best skiers on the west coast descended on one of the crown jewels of the North Tahoe area. The Northstar at Tahoe race department, grooming crews and race team did a great job of providing a great, challenging race course. The racers vied to be the fastest down the long course that rewarded strength, speed and stamina....
Two Day Winner and Part Time Bear Valley Resident Erik Arvidsson Launches out of the Starting Gate. Pinecrest's Cashman Clan and Sonora's John Proper Checking the Scoreboard to see how their kids did. Tons of video and links to slideshows enclosed..
Our local racers proved that some of the best skiers can come from right in our backyard. Former Bear Valley Team Racer Erik Arvidsson, Pinecrest's Jordan Cashman & Trenton Powell, Sonora's Mikael Proper all finished in the money. Many of the current Bear Valley Race Team members skied well with Adrien Ziegler and Emily Mallard turning in the best runs.
Coaches from various teams set two different courses each day. On day one the course sets were more open and let the skiers carry speed. Most of the top women and men ran times of under a minute per run on Friday. On Saturday and Sunday the course sets became increasingly tighter and more technical. These sets slowed the pace just a few seconds. Northstar has world class race facilities that included Live-Timing.com feeds for all the races. Live-Timing.com is a great service that feeds results of races in real time to the web. This service has changed completely the way fans, parents and coaches keep track of the races. Now everyone knows instantly what times each competitor runs usually before they do.
The results...On Friday Tenaya Standteiner, Marie Johnson and Hannah Johnson led the way for the women. Erik Arvidsson, Addison Dvoracek and James Lebel filled the podium for the boys. On Saturday young first year J3 Stephanie Lebby had a blistering first run that helped her earn the top spot by only 4 one hundreths of a second over Audrey O'Brien with Julia Cashell coming in third. On Saturday for the Men Erik Arvidsson pulled off a very difficult task of repeating as a winner. Garret Driller sped into second and Addison Dvoracek made his second appearance on the podium of the weekend. On Sunday Diana Abbott was the class of the field followed by Marie Johnson and Audrey O'Brien in third. For the men young Mr. Arvidsson bobbled and his win streak ended at two in a row. Garret Driller skied the fastest times of the day. Addison Dvoracek made his third trip to the podium for the weekend. James Label skied into third.
Squaw Valley easily won the “Battle of the Teams” with Sugar Bowl also getting some podium spots. Mammouth, Heavenly and others also had athletes in the hunt. One team that jumps out as an overachiever just based on number of athletes alone is Diamond Peak. Even though Diamond Peak is one of the smallest teams they always manage to deliver. They were the only other team after Sugar Bowl to score a podium. Some of their results came on the speedy skis of Hannah Johnson proving again that her trip to Whistler last year was no fluke. On Friday though they had two girls in the top 10 and all weekend long they had solid results from the majority of the team.
For the J-3s the next leg in their race for the Junior Olympics comes the last weekend in February as they head to Squaw Valley for 3 Days of Super G. Northstar at Tahoe should get high marks for providing a great venue and resort for the weekend. Complete Results are at Live-Timing.com or http://www.fwskiing.us
We have hundreds of photos of the weekend. On day two we captured the starts of some of the top racers as they left the gates in high speed bursts. These made for some interesting shots of different starting techniques.
