| Masters Moments: The Skier’s Edge Eastern Regional Championships - Sunday River, Maine By Barb Brumbaugh It is the end of March and all the championship events are finally over. That means Masters racers can officially start training for the 2007-2008 ski season. Super G Sunday River hosted the Masters Eastern Regional Championships, sponsored by the Skier’s Edge Company, on March 22 - 25, 2007. A training day for those either retired or with forgiving employers, was held on Thursday with real super G training. Those who trained had nothing but positive remarks on the day. The race on Friday, however, mysteriously turned into a tighter, GS influenced race which once again favored the technical skiers. Beata Wiktor (W2) won for the women, with Canada’s Maxime Masse (M1) narrowly edging New York’s Mark Sertl (M5) by four one hundredths of a second. Mark George (M6) followed in third and local “Mainer” Tip Kimball (M5) won the battle over Bromley coach Dorin Munteanu (M8). Wiktor held off Lisa Densmore (W5) by over a half second with Lake Placid’s Liz Mezzetti (W1) trailing by 0.37. Tracy Beckerman (W3) and Class 6 Nadine Price followed to round out the top five. Giant Slalom In the Giant Slalom on Saturday, it was Beckerman, Densmore, and Wiktor for top three honors holding off youngsters in class 1, Lauren Bennett, racing only in the GS and Abbi Lefebvre. First run leader Mezzetti, dropped on a hip early in her run, but managed to hold it together for a finish. For the men, again it was Masse holding off Sertl with Gould academy alumni and newcomer to Masters racing Brent Grygiel (M1) taking third. Class 6 racer Bill Zimmerman effectively removes himself from any overall combined championships by electing not to ski the super G. Zimmerman placed fourth overall holding off Kimball with a strong second run. Matt Aeschliman (M2) with the fastest first run was a DNF. Slalom To make things interesting and to spice up the action, the Sunday River race crew turned the slalom into a head-to-head dual event. The top eight women and top sixteen men of the championship slalom qualified for the wildly entertaining elimination finals. A fully rested Carolyn Beckedorff (W3) made a cameo appearance in the women’s event to win by 1.51 seconds over Mezzetti. Densmore regained a distant third from Lefebvre with a strong second run, with Beckerman taking fifth. Who says the senior classes aren’t competitive? Class 11 Jane Cooke, paired with Class 12 Duffy Dodge in the dual, demonstrated a little friendly banter and “trash talk” in the start. Flying out of the start, accomplished racer Dodge ended up hooking a tip a few gates into the course and Cooke, as she skied by him asked “Duffy, what are you doing down there, I’m passing you!!” Another “older” racer (don’t tell him that!) Class 8 Munteanu had his hands full as he held onto third overall, sandwiched between several class 1 and 2 racers. Youth prevailed when Grygiel showed home turf dominance by winning the first run and holding off a multiple-recovery-laden charge by Luke Hiebert (M1). Exchanging runs and hold the advantage, Masse held off Aeschliman by only four one hundredths of a second to push Aeschliman to fifth overall. Eastern Regional Team Those named to the 2007 Eastern Regional Team received Vests donated by The Skier’s Edge Company (www.skiersedge.com ). Age class overall champions are: Liz Mezzetti, Beata Wiktor, Tracy Beckerman, Barb Brumbaugh, Lisa Densmore, Nadine Price, Gay Folland, Dee Larsen, Jane Cooke, Max Masse, Mike Mezzetti, Jerome Guerard, Scott Berube, Mark Sertl, Mark George, Jeff Barrows, Dorin Munteanu, Steve Foley, Bob McGrath, Alphonse Sevigny and George Caner. Complete results at: http://ussamasters.org/2007/er
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