The Durango High School alpine ski team raced giant slalom at Ski Cooper near Leadville on Friday and continued getting faster through the gates.
DHS finished third in both the boys’ and girls’ team races. Renic Vincent also added his name to Durango’s state team with a 12th-place finish out of 58 boys.
“Another great race at Ski Cooper,” head coach Jill Carithers said. “We have seen so much improvement in our student athletes this year. We have several first time racers that are making huge improvements. It is fun to see these athletes dropping multiple seconds from race to race.”
Zach Oliver led the Demons boys with a fifth-place finish with a two-run time of 2:02.22 seconds. Vincent finished in 2:06.84 and Ian Fehr rounded out the boys’ team score with a 17th-place finish in 2:07.75.
Gracey Hening, meanwhile, finished third in the girls’ giant slalom to score Durango’s best overall finish. Hening flew through the gates in 59.33 in her first run, which was second only to Cate Simpson of Aspen (58.60). Everybody went slower on the second run, and Hening clocked the third fastest time of the heat, but Zala Smalls of Aspen was just a bit faster to finish .04 ahead of Hening, who placed third in 2:01.86. Simpson won in 2:00.00, leading the Skiers to the girl’s team title.
Lauren McClellan also finished in the top quarter of the field for DHS, crossing 14th in 2:07.09.
Annabel Carithers rounded out the team score in 21st (2:10.04).
Aspen won both the boys’ and girls’ team titles.
The Aspen girls won with 175 points, followed by Middle Park (162), Durango (154), Lake County (149), Nederland (148) Clear Creek (137) and Carbondale’s Colorado Rocky Mountain (44).
The Aspen boys, meanwhile, won with 174 points and were led by the first-place finisher Luka Smalls (1:58.87). Middle Park took second with 160, followed by Durango (156) and Nederland (156), Clear Creek (136), Lake County (133) and Colorado Rocky Mountain (95).
Ava McClellan (26th, 2:12.52), Alaysia Cullum (28th, 2:12.81), Madison LeSage (33rd, 2:14.31), Sienna Cullum (40th, 2:20.13), Ruby Tanaka (44th, 2:23.15), Nellie Miller (46th, 2:25.75), Brianna Tomberlin (50th, 2:26.65), Kiki Walden (51st, 2:28.06), Cassidy Scott (52nd, 2:28.93), Scarlett Ramsey (58th, 2:37.19) and Ann Austin (1:08.89/DNF) also raced for the Demon girls.
Also racing for the DHS boys were Finn Scarpella (20th, 2:09.11), Barron Bronson (24th, 2:11.85), Dane Englund (28th, 2:14.34), Liam March (32nd, 2:18.33), Jackson Nash (35th, 2:19.49), Cole Kusar (37th, 2:22.10), Skyler Taylor (43rd, 2:28.60), Jaiden Fuss (45th, 2:31.84), Nash Vincent (46th, 2:32.79), Corbin Horrocks (1:01.90/DNF) and Holden Bronson (59.99/DSQ).
The Demons will race in their final giant slalom of the regular season on Friday at Loveland. The Demons will then race in their final regular-season slalom competition Feb. 8 at Winter Park.
DHS currently has 12 athletes who have qualified for the state championships Feb. 16-17 at Copper Mountain.
