Masters Moments: George, McAleer find speed

A brief window of cold weather, allowed the snow guns to kick into action, and Eastern masters ski racers were back in the gates after a one-month hiatus.

A BRIEF WINDOW of cold weather, allowed the snow guns to kick into action, and Eastern masters ski racers were back in the gates after a one-month hiatus. Two traditional races were on the calendar, the Middlebury College Snow Bowl race on Jan. 14, and the following day, the 29th running of the Bunny Bertram Memorial at Suicide Six, just outside of Woodstock, Vermont. Both sites benefited from an intense snowmaking focus on the race trails prior to the races and organizers pulled off two outstanding slalom races. Conditions were challenging with a heavy snowfall at the Snow Bowl and then a stinging sleet at Suicide Six, but no one was complaining; there was good, hard snow on the hill, and high hopes that this winter of multiple personalities had finally found an identity appropriate to Northern New England.
    Deciding that 2 inches of sleet is still better than 2 inches of rain, Margaret Vaughn flatly stated, “At least it’s frozen!”
    Rewind to the opening rain-soaked races in mid-December held in monsoon conditions at Killington. The slalom resembled a luge run early in the race, as the women’s field negotiated ruts usually reserved for the younger men’s classes. The Killington race crew did an amazing job of pulling off the weekend events.
    The strong did more than survive as Mark George (M6) held off a pack of Class 2 racers. George took the win over Steve Ouellette (M2) by only 0.05, followed by Mike Mezzetti and Pennsylvania’s Randy Detrick. David Wolff (M4) rounded out the top five.
    The tough women’s field also duked it out, giving the men a run for their money with Liz Mezzetti (W1), a former world-class ski jumper, winning for the women and hanging on to seventh place overall. Not to be outdone, Lisa Densmore (W5) challenged with a second run that moved her into the men’s top 10.  A newcomer to masters racing, ex-Colby-Sawyer College racer Abigail Lefebvre (W1), edged Margaret Vaughn (W5) for third. Nadine Price (W6), having rediscovered slalom, talked herself into the remote possibility of actually liking slalom and pulled out a fifth place overall.
    Newcomers abounded as Randy Detrick from the Poconos of Pennsylvania took the GS win over Tim Mitchell (M1) and John Pierce (M4). Lake Placid’s Mike Mezzetti eked out fourth place over central New York racer Jim Thoman (M1).
    In a tightly contested women’s race and after a first-run tie, Carolyn Beckedorff (W3) took the win from Liz Mezzetti. Hanover, New Hampshire’s Densmore was only 0.01 off of that first-run tie but settled for third place overall, edging slalom wunderkind Kerry Brennan (W2) and Abigail Lefebvre.
    After a few weekends off from racing over the holidays and a cancellation due to unprecedented weather challenges, racers once again put away their golf clubs and resumed racing at Middlebury, Vermont, with a slalom.
    Slalom ace Mark George once again took the slalom, holding off Steve Ouellette and Matt Bemis (M4). Terrence Fogarty (M4) was fourth as GMVS coach Brandon Dyksterhouse (M2) provided a lesson in how slalom CAN be skied, taking a 6.39-second lead in the first run. Dyksterhouse blew his mega-lead, hiking mid-course and surviving a second crash near the bottom, still managing to place fifth overall.
    Jessie McAleer (W3) showed up at Middlebury chomping at the bit with energy, and took the early lead. Carolyn Beckedorff (W3) took the second run, but it wasn’t enough, with McAleer taking her first win of 2007. Liz Mezzetti, Densmore and Vaughn completed the top five.
    McAleer hadn’t skied a single gate of training prior to Middlebury and never felt or looked better. “It’s must be the new skis,” she laughed with a shrug of the shoulders.
    At Suicide Six, in sleet and freezing rain, it was once again a McAleer weekend as Jessie held off Carolyn Beckedorff, Densmore and Vaughn for her second win of the weekend. Speedster Price, once again believing slalom might have potential in her book, pulled out a fifth place overall.
    Alex Gadbois (M3) got the day off from work and showed up to spoil the George slalom winning streak by winning the second run and putting himself in front of George by 0.45 for the overall. Mark Budreski (M3), Brian Irwin (M3) and New York City’s Steve Masur (M4) completed the top five.
    An annual tradition at the Bunny Bertram Memorial is the 50/50 raffle. The closest guess of your second-run time wins half the pot. The other half goes to the Woodstock Ski Runners. This year’s winner was Haldor Reinhold (M9).
    Atop the Sise Cup leaderboard for the women are Carolyn Beckedorff, Lisa Densmore and Liz Mezzetti. For the men, it’s Mark George, Steve Ouellete and Randy Detrick.
    More results on www.nemasters.org.

Pacific Northwest masters
    It was cold, damn cold, for the PNSA Kickoff Classic. Timing gear failed partway through the first run — all blamed it on the cold. Did manual starts to get us through, got a new timing gear for second run — everything worked out.
    Tyler Milligan, a young guy (Class 4) and Knut Olberg, an old guy (Class 8) led the men. The ladies were led by Stephanie Kampschror and Sarah Peshkim (Class 3, Class 4). We've got all the snow we can want and the race conditions were great — except it was a bit cold. Check out https://www.pnsa.org.

Rocky Mountain Masters
    Seventy-three-year-old Doris Jones and her 80-year-old brother, Leon Johnson, were the first woman and man out of the gate at the Wolf Cup Downhill, which also included former World Cup and national team racer Jonna Mendes. The prestigious award going to the fastest sportage times went to first-time winner Carol Davis, Class 8, and Lee Kaufman, Class 9. On Monday, the “Shot Wad Lee Super G,” named for Lee Kaufman, was run in below-zero temperatures. Fastest man: Erik Klemme; fastest woman: (not surprisingly) Jonna Mendes.

Molecule F super G shifted
    The first event of the 2007 Molecule F Masters Speed Series — the Squaw Valley super G — has been rescheduled.
    Per series rules, the canceled event can be rescheduled with agreement between the masters nationals chairman, Ned Dolan, and series sponsor Bill Tabar. They have decided to include the super G event at Park City, Utah, scheduled for Jan. 26. This is part of a three-race weekend named the Loritz Cup in honor of Gary Loritz, a longtime masters racer and speed specialist who has been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease.

Revised Speed Series calendar
Jan. 26         Park City, Utah     SG
Feb. 2          Vail, Colo.           SG (Western Regionals)
Feb. 17-19    Aspen, Colo.        1SG-1DH
Feb. 26-28    Soldier Mt, Mont.   2DH
Mar. 16-18    Big Sky, Mont.      1SG-1D
H (Nationals)

Read more Rocky news, including full results, at www.rmmskiracing.org.

Midwest Masters
    Winter is finally here in the Midwest, and so is some great racing. The temperature on Saturday for the Western regional championships at Welch Village, Minnesota, was only 4 degrees, so the snow was very hard and crisp.
    The weekend was a great warm-up race for the Skier’s Edge Central Masters Championships set for Jan. 19-21 at Marquette Mountain, Michigan.
    The racers had an awesome weekend, savoring four races in two days. This was in part because of the first-rate Midwest Masters race crew that ran things like clockwork. Some old race crew vets such as Greg Able, Chris Gydesen and Britton Lawson were mixed with some new faces to the crew — Peter Maxwell, Mike Auge, Dustin Roberts and Ryan Fuller. Nick Tofanelli, who is recovering from knee surgery, chipped in with timing help and made things run a lot smoother.
    DJ Tengdin from Rocky Mountain Masters raced, as did his dad, Bob Tengdin. Both DJ and Bob had a great day, each putting four fast runs together.
    The number of girls racing is increasing (slowly, but surely!). Keep up the recruiting everyone! We were happy to welcome back Nina Sargent, who is getting back into racing after a sabbatical to focus on children, as well as a new member, former college racer Janine, who will be “chick”-ing the guys in no time! Heidi Lindemer had hot results this weekend and beat a number of the guys (again!).
    Check out all the results from this weekend and other Midwest Masters events at www.midwestmasters.org.

SR wants your masters news
    Masters Moments will appear weekly on skiracing.com as a supplement to our masters coverage in Ski Racing magazine. Send masters roundups, news, tidbits, Waxroom items, results and photos to Ski Racing at dcameron@skiracing.com.