Highlights from Final Day of Competition - Skier’s Edge Masters National Championships

March 9-16, 2007

By Barb Brumbaugh

 
Big Sky, Montana - The hoopla is over, awards have been presented and exhausted racers headed home from the Skier’s Edge US Masters Nationals at Big Sky, Montana. The weather held out and the championships were enormously successful. The final day of competition saw men’s competition in Group A giant slalom and Group B and D slalom with a festive atmosphere in the race arena.
 
The Skier’s Edge Company has been enormously supportive of Masters ski racing, not only in the United States, but worldwide. At the Masters US Nationals, Skier’s Edge donated two training machines (ski simulators) for auction in which proceeds went to the Big Sky Ski Educational Foundation.
 
Men’s group A giant slalom
While some racers took safe runs to ensure their combined status, others, on their last day of competition held nothing back. Northern division’s Sverre Nyquist (M3), with nothing to lose, led all the way in men’s group A giant slalom action with formidable leads in both runs. With two age class wins, Nyquist would have been a sure bet for an overall combined win, but a DSQ in super G took him out of the running. Class 4 Tim Hill (PN) and John Campbell (IM) led the chase in both runs to no avail. Nicholas Sargent (M2-CN) followed the lead pack and Intermountain’s Ryan Leach (M2) was close behind to round out the top five.
Eastern Highlights Group A giant slalom: It was the New York racers who represented the Eastern division in the final tally as Joel Solly scored divisional points with a fourth place and Jim Thoman (M1) collected gold in class 1.
Men’s group B slalom
Kurt Belden, an Eastern transplant to the Far West division from Pico,VT, held off all-comers in the men’s group B slalom with the closest contender, Dennis Wilhelmsen (ND), 2.41 seconds back. Sheer willpower and with the crowd pulling for him, Willie Scroggins finished two race runs in the same day. Earlier in the week, winning both training runs in the downhill, Scroggins failed to finish the downhill, the super G, and then the giant slalom. In his final attempt to get any finish, Scroggins, not only scored a podium in class 5, but also placed third overall in the race by holding off fellow Skier’s Edge team mate Bob Skinner by 0.13. Northern division’s Ron Matelich moved past class 6 slalom ace and Masters National Coordinator Bill Skinner to take fifth overall by 0.18.
Eastern Highlights Group B Slalom: Joseph Berry, from North Conway, NH, skis a limited number of races in New England Masters, but was the lone divisional point scorer for Eastern with a fifth in class 7. It was only 0.47 that kept Greg Sarkis from scoring divisional cup points in class 5.
Group D slalom
Knut Olberg (M8-PN) was considered by most the only serious threat to a Pepi Neubauer (EA) dominance in class 8. But once again Neubauer came out on top of group D action as challenger Olberg ended up 1.51 seconds behind. Olberg ended up 2.76 seconds ahead of third place finisher Keith McCauley (M8-IM). Tom Melhuse (M8) from the Northern division laid down the third fastest second run to hold onto fourth overall over Eastern’s class 9 Haldor Reinholt. In tight competition, Reinholt edged Gerald Randall out of the top five by a mere two hundredths of a second.
 
In class 11 action, Alphonse Sevigny (EA) moved from fourth place in the first run to gold medal position ahead of perennial favorite Far West racers Harold Wescott and first run leader, Gaetano DeMattei, with only 0.28 separating the top three.
Eastern Highlights Group D Slalom: Gold medals went to Duffy Dodge (M12), Alphonse Sevigny (M11), Haldor Reinhold (M9) and Pepi Neubauer (M8). Bob McGrath earned a bronze in class 10, with Dick Calvert scoring divisional points with a fifth place in class 12.
Combined Standings - Highlights
Racers who dominated their age classes with triple wins were Duffy Dodge, Pepi Neubauer, Dana Alexandrescu-Leach, Bob Dreyer, Glenn McConkey, Deb Lewis, Tim Hill, James Thoman, and Canadian Grace Oaks.
Eastern Highlights - Combined Standing Awards: Kerry Brennan , Barb Brumbaugh, Jane Cooke, Lisa Densmore, Pepi Neubauer Duffy Dodge, Anne Nordhoy, Nadine Price, Haldor Reinholt, Alphonse Sevigny, Margaret Vaughn all earned top 3 combined awards for the week.

 

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