Skier's Edge Western Region masters champs crowned

By Published On: February 13th, 2008Comments Off on Skier's Edge Western Region masters champs crowned

One slept in a Wendy’s in Dumont. Another cursed the snow at Steamboat and slept in his car. But masters racer Rick Slabinski, determined to get to Winter Park in time for the Skier’s Edge Masters Western Regionals super G, jammed up Berthoud Pass in his SUV while two other racers in the car screamed continuously at him to slow down.
     “No way,” Slabinski said. One by one, “Slabby” overtook the snowplows that are assigned to declare the road open or closed. He passed 17 of them, pulling in front of the lead plow, swerving around and over the new avalanche that closed the road minutes after he bulled through — the last racers to make it to the Regionals for the next 24 hours.
    “We had racers stopped everywhere, all over Colorado,” said Bill Skinner, USSA masters coordinator.
Winter Park Resort and the Rocky Mountain Division on Feb. 7-10 hosted the 2008 Skier’s Edge Masters Western Region Championships. Featuring separate courses for the A/B younger men (18-59) and older men (50 & older) and all the women.
One slept in a Wendy’s in Dumont. Another cursed the snow at Steamboat and slept in his car. But masters racer Rick Slabinski, determined to get to Winter Park in time for the Skier’s Edge Masters Western Regionals super G, jammed up Berthoud Pass in his SUV while two other racers in the car screamed continuously at him to slow down.
     “No way,” Slabinski said. One by one, “Slabby” overtook the snowplows that are assigned to declare the road open or closed. He passed 17 of them, pulling in front of the lead plow, swerving around and over the new avalanche that closed the road minutes after he bulled through — the last racers to make it to the Regionals for the next 24 hours.
    “We had racers stopped everywhere, all over Colorado,” said Bill Skinner, USSA masters coordinator.
Winter Park Resort and the Rocky Mountain Division on Feb. 7-10 hosted the 2008 Skier’s Edge Masters Western Region Championships. Featuring separate courses for the A/B younger men (18-59) and older men (50 & older) and all the women.
    Thursday’s two-run super G training before Friday’s race came off well, but the dump of overnight snow made the championship race impossible. The Winter Park race department showed incredible character in the overwork of handling the entire soft snow weekend, but Friday’s race was, to everyone’s dismay, reluctantly canceled. The second run of Thursday’s training was used as the Regional’s super G result, despite the many did-not-starts by stranded racers. Due to this it was not included in the combined scoring to name the Masters Western Regional team.
    The slalom and GS races came off first class despite the soft snow although favoring the older seasoned racers who ran first. For the weekend it was Jennifer Kaufman (RM), Knut  Olberg (PN) and Broc Thompson (RM) who dominated in their age grouping at this year’s Western Regionals.
    Broc Thompson (RM), 42, took charge of the A/B grouping, decisively winning both the slalom and GS. In hot pursuit in slalom was Toby Chapman (NO) and Tim Hill (PN), notable SL stars. It should be noted that on the USSA Fall Points list, Thompson and Hill’s slalom points are 71 and 51, respectively, which places them in the first seed of almost any junior race in the country. In the GS, Erik Klemme (RM) and the indestructible 59-year-old Victor Roy (IM) claimed second and third. Franz Fuchsberger was fourth both days. The winner of the Regional super G was Willi Scoggins by almost a full second. Elizabeth “Booka” Smith claimed the win for the women and Knut Olberg prevailed in group D.  
    Ski Club Vail’s Class 7 slalom ace Carol Levine sat atop the women’s podium and waited four classes until she was bumped from the top spot to settle for third overall. Class 3 Jennifer Kaufman smoked the first run to take the lead over Dana Alexandrescu-Leach by almost one and a half seconds. Kaufman lengthened her lead in the second run over Leach. In GS action, Kaufman once again outclassed the women’s field, taking the first run by more than a second. Leach rallied with the fastest second run but it wasn’t enough to move her into the lead. Levine found herself scrambling back from a first-run deficit of 0.96 seconds to tie for third with Class 4 Susan Roberts.
    Olberg is arguably the fastest masters racer in the world for his age grouping. A notable first was Intermountain’s Steve Slivinski taking of the Class 9 (65-69) combined title, a first for him, with six other racers all within five points.
Other class upsets include Jim Ragan (NO) in class 7, Stein Halsnes (RM) in class 6, a tiebreaking formula had to be used to give Kemme the jacket over Fuchsberger in class 5, as with David Griffin (RM) over Mike Shklovski (CN) in class 2 (30-34).
    There was character of another sort shown by Victor “The Inflictor” Roy, the dread of men’s class 7. Told by several observers that he had straddled a gate, though no judge noticed, he voluntarily DQed himself, to the great admiration of his peers.
    The Western Region Team members were awarded embroidered jackets in recognition of the combined competition, which this year included the GS and SL as the super G was canceled. The regional super G medals were awarded to the second training run winners on Thursday, which was named a provision race.
    The next major events on the masters calendar are the Skier’s Edge Eastern Region  Championships March 6-9 at Whiteface, N.Y., and the FIS Masters Series races at Mt. Norquay, Alberta. The Skier’s Edge Masters National Championships will be held March 17-22 at Mammoth, California.

Western Regional age class champions
John and Anna Droege, Virginia Reed, Coralue Anderson, Harold Wescott, Carl Fullman, Rosemary Moschel, Carol Levine, Linda Crowell, Victoria Valar, Susan Roberts, Jennifer Kaufman, Dana Alexandrescu-Leach,  Stephen Slivinski, Knut Olberg, James Ragan, Stein Halsnes, Erik Klemme, Broc Thompson, Toby Chapman, David Griffin and DJ Otto.

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About the Author: Pete Rugh