After getting one race under its belt, the Durango High School alpine ski team continued its return to the Colorado High School Activities Association’s competitive circuit last weekend at Copper Mountain.
The Durango boys skiers finished sixth of the eight teams and saw some major improvements in their second competitive event. More importantly, all three members of the boys team finished both runs, which is an improvement on last week’s effort.
Lucas Robbins finished 15th with a two-run slalom time of 1 minute, 45.92 seconds. Freshman Miles Bronson finished both runs in 2:17.09 to finish 44th, and fellow freshman Austin Swan also completed both runs (2:22.56) to place 46th.
“It was a great trip for us especially having everyone finish strong,” Durango High School Athletic Director Adam Bright said. “It was a different discipline and the kids all had a decent showing.”
Vail Mountain won the team battle with 174 point, while Battle Mountain came in second and Steamboat Springs finished third.
Vail also had the top skier, Peer Carnes, whose time of 1:27.66 shredded the field.
In the girls race, Claudia Luthy was the only competitor for the Demons. The sophomore skied to a 54th-place finish with a time of 2:11.41.
Students from DHS and other regional high schools are still welcome to join the team. Bright and head coach Leah Lesage have already added a skier from Mancos High School and have received interest from Telluride as well.
“I sent an email out to all the athletic directors and at least one student-athlete is already on board,” Bright said. “CHSAA has a rule that allows students from surrounding schools to join the team if their school doesn’t offer the sport, and that includes Telluride for us. They might have a student or two who can practice up there but travel with us, and that’s why we created this. We want to give as many kids the opportunity as we can.”
