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Cold
Weather and Sise Cup Return - George, Gadbois and McAleer Victorious over MLK
weekend by Stowe Reporter Brian Irwin After what
seemed like forever, the Sise Cup returned to action over the MLK Weekend
with a couple of hotly contested Slaloms at the Middlebury Snow Bowl and
Suicide Six. The racing was welcome
return for the Master’s, especially after the previous weekends events had
been wiped out due to rain. Mother
Nature looked like it might prevail again mid-week, but the temperatures
dropped just enough for both areas to make significant amounts of snow and
host some great racing. On Sunday at
Middlebury the Master’s were treated to a clinic, of sorts, by one of the top
Slalom skiers (of any age) in the country.
Former UVM ace and current GMVS coach Brandon Dyksterhouse graced the
Master’s with his presence and showed us all how the big boys do it. On a very tightly set 1st run,
“Dyster” hammered all comers by a whopping 6.5 seconds and it looked as if
the rest of the mortals would be racing for 2nd place. Aside from Dysterhouse, the usual suspects
of Master’s were lurking behind, Mark George, Matt Bemis and Steven
Ouellete. All three skied very well,
but knew only a miscue, and a huge one at that, by Dysterhouse would open the
door for them to be victorious. All
three skied flawless 2nd runs and when Dysterhouse hit the ground
in his run and was forced to hike, victory for the day would go once again to
Mark George from Barre, VT. Again,
Ouellete, like at Killington before, was second to George and Bemis just
edged Terrence Fogerty to round out the podium for the day. Even with his hiking expedition,
Dyksterhouse managed to cling to 5th. In the women’s field the rivalry, which has been waged for
years, was renewed for the first time this season. Jessie McAleer and Carolyn Beckdorff have won countless Sise
Cups between them and it looks like this year might not be any
different. Jessie won the 1st
run, Carolyn the 2nd, but it was Jessie who won the day when the
times were all added up. Both ladies
bested all but a handful of the men on the day and it is only a matter of
time before that could happen this season.
The top five was rounded out by Liz Mezzetti, Lisa Densmore, and
Margaret Vaughn. Many kudos to Peter
Mackey and Ron Quesnel and the rest of the folks at Middlebury for a great
and well run event, despite all the hoops that Mother Nature tried to get us
to jump through. On Monday it
was down the road to Suicide Six and the Bunny Bertam Memorial Slalom. A traditional stop on the Sise Cup tour,
great skiing is always in the works on the challenging Face trail. For the ladies, it was same faces,
different place. Carolyn and Jessie
battled again for supremacy amongst the ladies, but the out come was the
same. Jessie won both runs for the
women and the overall. In fact,
Jessie nearly won the 1st run outright against all the men. Lisa Densmore rounded out the podium for
the day, while Margaret Vaughn and Nadine Price rounded out the top
five. On the men’s side a few new
faces tried to pry the death grip that Mark George has had on Slalom this
season out of his hands. With the top
three in the 1st run of Terrence Fogerty, Mark George and Brian
Irwin, separated by only .06 seconds, it would be a dog fight to see who
would win on the day. Factor in Scott
Smith, the local favorite, and Alex Gadbois lurking just behind, and the
leaders better have their “A” game if they expected to win. George skied early and looked like he
might make it 3 for 3 on the season in Slalom, especially after Smith and
Fogerty both failed to finish and Irwin had a bobble near the top of the
course that cost him valuable time.
However, the day would belong to Alex Gadbois. Facing a small deficit to George, Gadbois
attacked the slightly more open afternoon course and won the 2nd
run and the overall. A valiant
challenge for 2nd run honors went to Mark Budreski, who came up
just short but climbed over numerous competitors to end up 3rd for
the day. The remainder of the top
five was made up by the a fore mentioned Irwin in 4th and Steven
Masur in 5th, for his best Master’s result ever. Again, many thanks go to Suicide Six and
the Woodstock Ski Runners for diligent effort and hard work to prepare the
venue in challenging conditions. Next week
racing heads to Bromley for a slalom and to Stratton for a fast, wide open
Giant Slalom. |