Rocky Central takes regional title at U18 national championships in Vail

Photo: SSCV

The Rocky Central region dominated at U18 national championships this week, outscoring the West and East by a huge margin. The seven-day series was held at Vail during the week of March 1, including downhill training days at the beginning of the week. 

The event also marked the first time full-length downhill has been hosted on Golden Peak, thanks to successful completion of the expansion project in 2019, which added significant vertical needed to accommodate speed.

The athletes experienced firm, icy snow on the course – an ideal situation for speed races. 

“Ski & Snowboard Club Vail did an awesome job preparing the surface for all four events, especially for the new downhill track, which was perfect snow the entire way,” skier Nick Demarco reported. 

The women’s downhill was the first speed event. Of the 46 women that were on the start list, seven did not finish and one did not start. The top three women and most of the competitors, ski for Rocky Central or Western Region clubs. 

Allison Mollin was the fastest woman in the downhill with a time of 1:11.84. Jenna Sheldon was 0.77 seconds behind in second. Annaliese Frohlich finished in third, 1.08 off the pace. Mollin skis for Team Palisades Tahoe, Sheldon for Loveland Ski Club and Frohlich for Crystal Mountain Alpine Club. 

The super-G had an entirely different podium than the downhill for the women. Vail’s Kaitlin Keane found herself on the top step, 0.28 seconds ahead of Steamboat’s Tatum Grosdidier and 0.47 seconds faster than Kjersti Moritz, also of Vail, in third.

“I really like racing in Vail and Beaver Creek,” said Keane. “I don’t know if it’s because it’s at home or if it’s because the snow and the weather is always great, but I always have a blast racing here.”

Keane admitted that she wasn’t sure what to expect out of this race series, but is happy with how it turned out.

“The snow was nice and icy and the course was really open, so I was able to just send it down the fall line,” said the Vail skier. 

Next was the men’s downhill. The top three men in the downhill – Matthew Macaluso, Hunter Salani, Trent Pennington – were all within 47 hundredths of a second. Macaluso finished with a time of 1:07.67; Salani was 0.33 seconds out. Pennington rounded out the podium with a time of 1:08.14. 

Pennington and Macaluso were the two oldest athletes to race, with 2002 and 1999 birth years, respectively, so neither qualify for the U18 podium, 

The men on the U18 podium were Vail’s Hunter Salani, Steamboat’s Jeremy Nolting and Okemo’s Ryan Thomson.

Just over 70 men started the super-G on Friday. Vail’s Trent Pennington won the men’s super-G by 0.40 seconds. Matthew Macaluso finished in second and Hunter Salani in third. 

Like the downhill, the U18 podium differed from the overall. Hunter Salani was the fastest U18, followed by Burke Mountain Academy’s Nolan Sweeney and Vail’s Carson Hume, who finished in second and third.

Next, the young athletes shifted their focus to tech. The women raced GS on Saturday, the men on Sunday. 

The athletes reported that the surface held up throughout the entire series, an impressive feat with so many runs and racers.

Kjersti Moritz, Kaitlin Keane and Rowmark’s Elisabeth Bocock were on the first, second and third steps of the women’s GS podium, respectively.

All three of the top women have GS points in the 30s and have proved to be competitive outside of these races as well. In this race, they were all within six-tenths of a second. Moritz and Keane were separated by just 0.12 overall. 

The men’s GS race took place the day after the women’s race on March 6. Mt. Mansfield’s John Kerbaugh won the race by 0.81. Sebastian Kohlhofer, of Vail, and Roman Elvidge, of Steamboat, finished in second and third, respectively. 

“My biggest challenge was the altitude, and the long courses,” Kerbaugh said. “The GS was the longest GS I’ve raced, with race times being over 1:20.00. In the GS, I raced the first run with one pole after nearly crashing through the 10th gate.”

Last but not least was the slalom. There were some familiar names from earlier events, but also some new people in the mix. 

Rocky Central swept the women’s slalom podium. Tatum Grosdidier won by over a second, with the GS winner Kjersti Moritz in second and Sophia Palmquist, of Team Summit, in third. 

On the men’s side, Steamboat’s Nick Demarco, GBR’s Dominic Shackleton and Sun Valley’s Finnigan Donley made up the podium. All three regions were represented on this podium: Demarco races for Rocky Central, Shackleton for the East, and Donley for the West. 

After all four events were completed, these were the total point tallies:

Regions Cup:

1 – Rocky Central – 246 PTS
2 – West – 137 PTS
3 – East – 59 PTS

Overall U18 Champions – Females:

1 – Kjersti Moritz – SSCV – 240 PTS
2 – Kaitlin Keane – SSCV – 230 PTS
3 – Tatum Grosdidier – SSP – 180 PTS
4 – Allison Mollin – TPT – 160 PTS
5 – Annaliese Frolich – CMAC – 131 PTS

Overall U18 Champions – Males:

1 – Hunter Salani – SSCV – 272 PTS
2 – Finnigan Donley – SVSEF – 192 PTS
3 – Jeremy Nolting – SSP – 152 PTS
4 – Dominic Shackleton – BMA – 151 PTS
5 – Roman Elvidge – SSP – 145 PTS