After a strong start in the first half their season, the Durango High School Alpine skiing team was feeling confident looking toward the state competition, which happened on Feb. 20 and 21. That confidence was well-placed.
The Demons had five athletes named to all-state teams, individual state champion senior Mathilde Roskam, and had three skiers invited to represent Colorado at Western Nationals in March.
“It was such a phenomenal race,” Durango ski coach Jill Carithers said. “Really great courses and course sets. Aspen has gotten so much snow, but they have a race area that they probably do quite a bit of maintenance so the race surface was really hard which is perfect for racing.”
All-state skiing honors are based on an athlete’s entire season rather than solely on performance at the state meet. The all-state teams consist of eight girls and eight boys, with slalom and giant slalom teams selected separately. Western Nationals is a competition between all the Western states in the U.S., sanctioned by U.S. Ski and Snowboard. Ten girls and 10 boys who compete in both disciplines make up the Western Nationals teams.
DHS’ strongest performer was Roskam, a French exchange student, whose combined time across her two runs of one minute, 10.29 seconds earned her the title of individual state champion in girls slalom. Roskam didn’t know Durango had a ski team until she asked Carithers about it in class. She’s on a one-year exchange program and will go home to France in June.
She was only 0.33 seconds ahead of Battle Mountain’s Eden DeMino, with Roskam and DeMino being the only athletes under 1:11.
Roskam also had a strong showing in giant slalom, finishing seventh out of 56 of the state’s top skiers. Her combined run time of 1:17.21 was 3.13 seconds behind the winning time of 1:14.08 from Battle Mountain’s Ruthie DeMino. Roskam was named to the all-state teams for both slalom and giant slalom.
Joining Roskam on the all-state giant slalom team was senior Lauren McClellan, who finished 18th individually with a time of 1:20.65. On the boys side, senior Holden Bronson earned all-state honors in giant slalom, finishing eighth out of 59 skiers with a time of 1:21.73.
In slalom, the Demons had three skiers selected to the all-state teams. Roskam represented the DHS girls, with junior Corbin Horrocks and senior Zach Oliver being honored from the Durango boys. Horrocks finished 22nd out of 68 competitors in the state slalom race with a time of 1:18.56, with Oliver’s 1:09.76 earning him 12th.
Oliver, Horrocks and Roskam were the three DHS athletes selected to represent Colorado at Western Nationals. They will compete from March 13 to 15 at Grand Targhee Resort in Wyoming.
Across the whole season, teams have the opportunity to accumulate points based on performances at meets. The Demons girls and boys combined had the second-most points in the giant slalom category across the state. At the state meet, the DHS boys finished fifth out of 12 teams in both slalom and giant slalom. The girls finished sixth out of 12 teams in both categories.
The DHS athletes weren’t the only Durango honorees, though. The Demon parents received the Team Spirit Award, being the only group that continues the tradition of ringing cowbells at the start and finish of each race.
This season is the best that DHS skiing has had since its days as a state powerhouse in the 1970s, according to Carithers, with five athletes selected to the all-state team and an individual state champion. The future looks bright for Durango skiing, with athletes like Horrocks, sophomore Johan Souders (21st in giant slalom) and freshman Izzy Ratcliff (30th in giant slalom) ready to lead the way next year.
