Ski club’s U16 fly high at B.C. provincials

By Mary Clayton, Revelstoke Ski Club

The Revelstoke Ski Club sent six ski racers to the U16 Provincial Championships at Red Mountain in Rossland from Mar. 21-24, yielding one podium finish and a handful of top-15 results. The race format allowed each skier two slalom races and two giant slalom races over four days. “The courses were good and the snow conditions were excellent,” said head coach Ned Lazarevic. “The kids had fun and both our boys and girls did a great job.”

Although Max Scharf didn’t get on the podium, his 10th place finish in one GS and 17th in the other were enough to earn him a berth on Team Canada at the upcoming Whistler Cup, the pre-eminent international ski racing competition for young skiers in Canada.

Teammate Mitch Smith had a podium and two top-ten results in these provincial championships, placing third in one of the slalom races, and sixth and ninth in the two GS races. These results, combined with his overall performance over the season, have earned Mitch a place on Team BC for the Whistler Cup.  Both Scharf and Smith have had very strong seasons and hopes are high for their performance at the Whistler Cup, coming up April 5 – 7.

Callum Hicks placed 15th and 17th in the two GS races. “This is Callum’s first year in this group so these are very good results,” said coach Lazarevic. “This age group is a very strong field and only two boys of his birth year are ahead of him.”

The girls did not place as high but their slalom results were “very encouraging,” said Coach Lazarevic. Caroline Boouwmester’s best result was 15th in slalom and in that same race teammate Sonia Schwenck hit her high point with 22nd.

“Both these girls have shown good improvement over the season,” said Lazrevic. “This was a good competition for them and these results put them in good position, setting them up for their next race.”

Nancy Greene racers tackle Sun Peaks

Many of the club’s younger racers attended the Sun Peaks Nancy Greene Festival at Sun Peaks Resort near Kamloops on March 22 and 23. More than 500 competitors from all over the province gathered for fun events aimed at skiers U6 to U12.

The Revelstoke Club sent 16 young skiers to tackle a dual “glalom” (a slalom course modified for younger skiers), a skier-cross, timed moguls, a speed trap and a jumping competition.

Speed Trap

For the U10/12 group, Jenna Knight, Colm Molder and John Sidjak tied for the club’s top speed of 75 km/hr. The longest jumper in the club was Alex Jay.

For the U6/U8, Nora Sidjak had the club’s top speed at 73 km/hr, tying for second place overall. Reed Kelly was close behind at 72 km/hr.

Jump

U10/12: Alex Jay had the longest jump for our club at 40 feet

U6/U8: Reed Kelly had longest jump for the club at 25 feet

Moguls

Top-15 results for U10/U12: Erika Peagood 7^th,  Alex Jay 11th.

For the U6/U8 group, Reed Kelly was 5^th, Nora Sidjak 8^th, Alena Hamilton 8^th, Kale Jay 12^th, and Meya Musseau 13^th.

Skier Cross

U10/U12: There were three top-15 results in skier cross. Sophia Humphreys 12^th, Brynn Harrison 13^th Colm Molder 14^th.

U6/U8: Reed Kelly 3^rd, Nora Sidjak 5^th

Glalom

U6/U8: Nora Sidjak 2^nd , Reed Kelly 6^th

U10/12: Colm Molder 6^th, Jenna Knight 6^th, John Sidjak 14^th , Sophia Humphreys 18^th, Nolan Gale 36^th, Alex Jay 16^th, Devyn Gale 29^th

Sydney Musseau 13^th, Erika Peasgood 14^th, Brynn Harrison 21^st

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Note: An earlier version of this story mis-identified the photo of Max Scharf. We were sent a photo that we were told was Scharf, but was actually Max Pfeiffer of Whistler. Thank you to Karen Molder for letting us know of the mistake.