Snow has been hard to find around Durango and Colorado, but that hasn’t stopped the Durango High School Alpine ski team from putting together some impressive results with the postseason on the horizon.
The Demons have competed in four events across Colorado this year, with their home event at Purgatory Resort on Friday. Durango has five women and three men already qualified for state slalom.
Durango’s state slalom team includes Brianna Tomberlin, Quincy Robinson, Izzy Ratcliff, Jocelyn Mehaffie and Emery McLaughlin on the women’s side. On the men’s side, Corbin Horrocks, Johan Souders and Nate Mehaffie have qualified for the Demons.
“This season’s gone very well,” Durango ski coach Jill Carithers said. “We had one painful race, um, but we learned a lot about inspection and figuring out our timing and how our team can help one another … Going into the end of the season, we have been a traditionally very strong giant slalom team.”
Carithers is excited for her team to host the race at Purgatory on Friday. Her athletes have been skiing at Purgatory their whole lives. Purgatory offers some unique and amazing terrain, according to Carithers, so the Demons will have an advantage over their opponents.
The Demons, and the rest of Colorado, hasn’t had a lot of snow to work with, and that has caused the race course at Purgatory to move from Upper Hades to Paradise due to the lack of snow at Upper Hades. Carithers said the two runs are similar.
“We have been so lucky to practice at Chapman Hill,” Carithers said. “We moved several weekend practices to Chapman, where we could get done in two hours, but we could never have gotten done at Purgatory in the same amount of time. Tim Kuss has made an amazing race surface at Chapman. It's super steep, it's holding gates well, and it's challenging to our athletes.”
To qualify for state, a skier needs to finish in the top 25% of the starters in one regular-season event, and they need to start at least two events in the regular season. Carithers said eight athletes qualifying from Durango is about average.
The Demons have competed in Loveland twice, Aspen and Keystone. The Demons have reached the podium three times this winter, with Tomberlin and Horrocks finishing third in slalom at the season’s opening round in Loveland on Jan. 8. Horrocks also finished third in slalom at Keystone on Jan. 30.
“She has just become such an amazing slalom skier in her rhythm and putting it all together,” Carithers said about Tomberlin. “She did not have a race background coming into our high school program. So she's really what we would call homegrown … and to be a top-three finisher at any given race, that's pretty impressive.”
Horrocks, a Del Norte High School student who races with the Demons, is strong and steady, according to Carithers. She said he is a tall, lean and beautiful skier who powers through the gates.
Elsewhere on the boys side, Souders’ best slalom result was sixth at Keystone on Jan. 30. Nate Mehaffie’s 12th-place finish in slalom at Keystone was his best. Carithers said Nate is a very gritty racer who should impress in the giant slalom at state.
Jocelyn Mehaffie also had a strong performance at Loveland on Jan. 8, finishing sixth in girls slalom. Robinson’s best slalom result was eighth at Keystone on Jan. 30. Ratliff also impressed at Loveland on Jan. 8, with a seventh-place finish in slalom. McLaughlin’s 12th-place finish in slalom at Keystone on Jan. 30 was her best of the season.
The giant slalom state team will be announced on Feb. 14 or 15, according to Carithers. She expects a lot of the same skiers who qualified for slalom to qualify for giant slalom. The Alpine ski state finals will be at Gold Peak at Vail on Feb. 18 and 19.
Friday’s home race at Purgatory is the first Alpine race hosted by Durango High School in eight years. Carithers hopes to pack the finishing area with local fans to support Durango’s hard-working student-athletes.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
