Masters Moments: Homage to Pendleton, Loritz

Clear day masters racers from near and far headed to Park City Mountain Resort to compete in the first Loritz Classic. The Loritz Classic is a three-event competition with awards going to the fastest men and women ski racers using a special formula designed to identify the best athletes across all of the normal masters age-class groupings, similar to the Bernard Cup in the Far West division. There is a huge trophy that will be displayed in Adolph’s restaurant in Park City.

CLEAR DAY MASTERS racers from near and far headed to Park City Mountain Resort to compete in the first Loritz Classic. The Loritz Classic is a three-event competition with awards going to the fastest men and women ski racers using a special formula designed to identify the best athletes across all of the normal masters age-class groupings, similar to the Bernard Cup in the Far West division. There is a huge trophy that will be displayed in Adolph’s restaurant in Park City.
    Anna Droege and Victor Roy took top honors last weekend, but sadly, their names will not be the first engraved on the beautiful trophy.
    Last week, our world lost a real hero. Brett Pendleton died tragically Wednesday, Jan. 24 while training super G in preparation for the races. The shock of losing Brett has been very hard on our masters ski racing community. Our prayers and hearts go out to his wife, Shawna, and daughters Sadie and Britnie. Brett embodied the masters racing spirit. Like Gary Loritz, he is a hero to us.
    Both Gary and Brett are examples for us and their life examples help us to answer the question, “Why?” Gary Loritz founded our masters racing circuit at Park City Mountain Resort. Gary’s energy and hard work made it possible for us to have the opportunity to grow and challenge ourselves in sport, the opportunity to experience ski racing in the great outdoors, and the opportunity to meet fun and interesting people.
    Brett Pendleton is one of the best people we’ve met. He’s one of us. We are masters ski racing people whose collective answer to the question, “Why?” is an emphatic, huge smiling, “WHY NOT?!”
    Friday’s super G race was held on the Payday run and it was a day of reflection and great ski racing performances. With Gary Loritz and wife Kristi in the finish arena under blue skies, Rick Slabinski was the fastest of the day. This victory for Slabby is certainly another example of the spirit we embrace. Rick’s hard work rebounding from a knee replacement in the spring paid off on his home hill as he blistered the field by half a second. Franz Fuchsberger was second overall with Ryan Leach third. 
    Other standout performances came from class winners John Droege, Bob Chambers, John Bloomberg, Keith Thompson, race organizer Keith McCauley, Victor Roy, Grant Donovan, Chris Peterson, Thunder Jalili, and Jon “Speedie” Jessup. Women’s top three were Dana Alexandrescu-Leach, Chris Katzenberger and Amy Lanzel. Amy’s outstanding results make a great story because it is she who had the inspiration and follow through to create the Loritz Classic. Of special note are women’s class winners Virginia Reed, Nancy Auseklis, Glenn McConkey, Rosemary Moeschel, Pam Sheeler and Dasha Kadulova.
    After the race there was a gathering of racers, family and friends at the finish arena for a moment of silence in memory of Brett Pendleton. The huge gathering then returned to the top of the hill to descend. The ski procession’s serpentine form was a beautiful way to honor and share his memory.
    Saturday’s giant slalom was held on CB’s run. Alexandrescu again took top spot for the women with Chris Katzenberger second and Jennifer Rollins third. Tops in class included Anna Droege and Linda Wagner. Linda’s performance warrants special note as she is seeing much-improved results this season. Look out for Wagner at next week’s Western Region Championships. Top men’s racers were Ryan Leach, Mike “Old School” Falk and Steve Linck. Drury Cooper won in class as did Canada’s Ed Fenwick, Bob Dreyer from Sun Valley, Park City’s own Brian Frost, Mark LaSalle, Andy Baillargeon and Adam Mangone. Also tops in his first-ever masters ski race was Joel Davidowsky in Class 4.
    Saturday’s traditional awards party was packed. Many ski racing people came to hear Gary Loritz address the crowd. His message was loud and clear: “Never miss another race!” We hear you Gary, thanks for the opportunity.
    Pendleton must have whispered something in Mother Nature’s ear Sunday as the Loritz Classic was treated to another picture-perfect day. Picabo’s run for slalom was the day’s test. Night training’s favorite mole, Luke Larsen, was tops in Class 1. Thunder Jalili, Scott Aldrich, Tom Kronthaler, McCauley, Thompson, Frost, Donovan, Chambers, Droege and Carl Fullman were class winners. Top honors again went to Fischer/Swix/Poc rep Ryan Leach followed by Linck then Slabinski.
    Dennis Wilhelmsen showed great form in his first run with the best time. He’s one to watch in Vail next week. Nancy Auseklis, McConkey, Moschel, Sheeler, Lanzel, Louise McKee and Virginia Reed won their respective class battles. Overall winner was again Alexandrescu followed more closely by Katzenberger second, Lanzel third.
    Adolph’s restaurant hosted the presentation of the Loritz Classic awards after the races. Victor Roy gave a very nice acceptance speech and everyone enjoyed all of the hard work of the organizers and volunteers. Special thanks was given to Keith McCauley, who not only served as race organizer, but also crafted the wood base to the huge Loritz Classic trophy. Everyone clapped thanks to Bill Skinner, Amy Lanzel, Meri Stratton, the Park City Mountain Resort race crew, proprietor Adolph Imboden, Kristi Loritz and especially Gary Loritz.
    Speakers described the masters spirit that makes our group fun. This spirit, this fire: It’s the “Grrr” that makes us go! Thanks Gary!

New England Masters
    Despite single-digit temperatures, competition heated up at Cranmore Ski Area for the Gibson Cup on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 26-27, and for a slalom at Wildcat on Sunday. Some “old” faces from past seasons, as well as some welcomed new competition, showed up on the start lists over the weekend.
    The historic Gibson Cup, a two-day combined event of GS and slalom, is held annually to honor North Conway native Harvey Dow Gibson. In 1939, Gibson, a banker and business owner, used his financial and political clout to successfully negotiate for the “relocation” of Hannes Schneider from war-torn Austria to North Conway to run the ski school at Cranmore. Schneider is known as the “father of modern skiing,” having developed the stem Christie and modern ski teaching methods.
    This year, Matt Aeschliman (M2), took overall Gibson Cup honors with a second place in the GS and a win in the slalom. Steve Ouellette (M2) and Dave Wolff (M4) challenged but were unable to ski clean over four runs. In the end, it was Tip Kimball (M5) and Mark George (M6) rounding out the top three over two days of competition. In age-class competition in the combined, it was the men’s Class 3 that was the closest race, with only 0.66 separating Alex Gadbois and Brian Irwin, with Gadbois taking the class win. Gadbois and Irwin finished fourth and fifth overall.
    For the women, it was once again Jessie McAleer (W3) taking the Gibson Cup win. McAleer won all fo
ur runs with a margin of more than 20 seconds. Chasing her were Kim Wolff  (W5) with two second-place results and Margaret Vaughn (W5) following in third. Meg Nutter (W6), in her first weekend back this season, used her slalom prowess to overtake Anne Nordhoy (W9) for fourth overall.
    Summarizing the results after the race, Patti Lane (W5), while commiserating with Barb Brumbaugh (W4), stated, “I don’t know what happened in the slalom, but you and I should’ve just hit the bar after the first run.” The bar is where everyone headed after the race to enjoy liquid refreshments supplied by sponsor Shipyard Brewery.
    Finally, a race was held under near-perfect race conditions, as racers gathered Sunday for a slalom at Wildcat. Everyone had the pleasure of enjoying a couple of warmup runs on several inches of a strange white fluffy substance prior to the race. The courses were well-set and held up well for the field.
    McAleer scorched the second run for the win over Kim Wolff. Wolff was able to hold off Abbi Lefebvre (W1), who settled for third overall. Vaughn was fourth with Michelle Woloshin (W2) taking fifth.
    Competition got a little more interesting for the men when Tim Mitchell (M1) stole the win from George by 4.36 seconds. Mitchell is the head Harvard University ski team coach and a five-time All-American from Plymouth State (2002). To make the race just a little more interesting, Mitchell brought along Scott Kennison (M1), his assistant coach at Harvard. Though a mistake in the first run took him out of overall contention, Kennison had the fastest second run, taking down Mitchell by 1.2 seconds. Kennison is no stranger to elite ski racing, as he is a former captain of the UVM ski team and former U.S. development ski team member. In third place overall, Ouellete had his hands full, holding off Mark Budreski (M3) by a mere 0.09, while Wolff, unable to hold onto a 0.98-second lead over Budreski, followed closely in fifth overall.
    The Sise Cup overall standings: McAleer leading with Vaughn and Nordhoy moving into second and third, respectively.  For the men, it’s still George hanging on to the lead with Ouellete and Randy Detrick rounding out the top three. Gadbois is only one point behind in fourth overall. The competition heats up as the overall hunt for Sise Cup honors tightens with 10 scoring races to go — anything can happen!
    Racers will converge on Okemo on Friday, Feb. 2, for a super G, the first speed event of the season, and then on to Sunapee and Gunstock for GS and slalom.
    Complete results at www.nemasters.org.

New York Masters
    The Snow Country New York Masters Series finally kicked off the 2006-07 ski racing season last weekend. It was about the mildest December and January ever — the first five race days were canceled due to lack of snow and warm weather. Luckily, the weather is finally cold and it has been snowing in western New York, making for some great skiing finally.
    Last weekend, the New York Masters traveled to Ellicottville, N.Y., for two days of ski racing. There were GS races at Holimont on Saturday and slalom races at Holiday Valley on Sunday.
    At Holimont on Saturday morning, it was cloudy and 34 degrees, with light snow and sleet. The race hill was in great shape, with a nice firm base in the fast lane but soft and slow if you got late. The Holimont race crew did a great job and set some challenging GS courses that went from turny at the top to fast and straight at the finish.
    The top men in race No. 1: 1. Greg Sarkis M5; 2. Joel Solly M4; 3. Pepi Neubauer M8. The top women in race No. 1: 1. Margaret Baleno W3; 2. Cindy Goodin W5; 3. Barbara Settel W7.
    The top men in race No. 2: 1. Sarkis; 2. Jim Thoman M1; 3. Trevor Schoenmaker M1. The top women in race No. 2: 1. Baleno; 2. Goodin; 3. Margit Poirier W4.
    On Sunday at Holiday Valley, it was sunny and cooler, with a few inches of fresh snow. The Holiday Valley race crew did a fine job and set two challenging and very turny slalom courses. The courses held up well, except for a few monster holes that ejected some of the best.
    Erik Barazsu (M1) topped the men’s podium, followed by Sarkis and Miguel Azcarate (M5,), who tied for second. Baleno was tops among women, besting Leigh Garam (W6) and Settel.
    In race 2 at Holiday, it was Barazsu in front, Azcarate second and Sarkis third, while for the women, Baleno topped Garam and Poirier.
    After each race day, there were some good postrace awards parties. There were lots of prizes from out sponsors: Snow Country, Swix, Sprint and Constellation Brands, as well as some good food and beverages.
    Next weekend, the New York Masters have three days of racing. On Friday, SG/SG, and Saturday SL/SL at Song Mountain. Racing shifts to Greek Peak on Sunday for GS/GS.    
    Check out the Web page www.nymasters.org for further updates.