There were many personal bests achieved by the racers of the Revelstoke Ski Club this weekend. Three different series took place: the Okanagan zone finals for the kinder and J1 athletes, the western Canadian finals for the FIS athletes, and the Canadian championships for Masters racers.
Big White hosted the Okanagan zone finals on Saturday and Sunday – where Revelstoke earned five medals. Emily Unterberger handily won both runs of Saturday’s slalom race to win the K2 division by over three seconds overall. Mitch Smith finished second overall in K2, winning the second run by eight tenths of a second. Thyra Erben finished 13th overall and first in the J1 category. Sonia Schwenck placed seventh and Shayna Seyl tenth in K2.
Donovan Miskiman finished 11th, while teammate Lachlan Hicks was second in the first run but did not finish the second, and Max Scharf did not complete the first run but was third in the second run.
On the K1 side Anne-Marie Duchesne came eighth, Caroline Bouwmeester 11th, Thea Peasgood 14th and Erin Behncke 23rd. Callum Hicks did not finish the first run but placed third in the second.
Both Hicks brothers brought home some hardware in Sunday’s exciting dual slalom: Callum a gold for K1 and Lachlan a silver in K2.
The FIS women had a challenging first giant slalom day in Panorama – none finished due to difficult course conditions in soft snow and rain. The second day brought sunshine and better results: Alix Petit placed 16th with a personal best point result, Erika Park finished 28th and Jamie Park 59th.
The FIS men also had a strong showing on Sunday at Nakiska: Dominic Unterberger placed 30th for another personal best result, Alex Duchesne placed 57th, Eric Schwenck 60th, Brady Roy 68th and Adrian Bernava 70th. Both Cole Smith and Peter Behncke fell early in Sunday’s first run, but on Saturday Behncke scored a result with a 56th place and Smith finished 75th.
The final personal best of the weekend was achieved by Masters racer Erich Unterberger at the National championships at Sun Peaks. Unterberger proved he’s a second-run racer; after placing fourth in the first Super G race, he stepped up to win the second race by over half a second. In the giant slalom he placed third overall but won the second run.
Several kinder athletes are heading to Whistler this weekend for the Whistler Cup international children’s race. Other racers are winding down their season but are preparing for the “Last Blast” open dual slalom race held at RMR on April 22nd and 23rd.