Okemo Opens the New England Masters 2000 Season

Okemo Mountain hosted the opening New England Masters Series race on Jan. 2, and despite the change in century, the names on the top of the results remained the same. Last year’s champion, Chris Johnson, started off the 2000 season where he left off - with a win in the men’s race. The woman’s race winner Kathy Rae (Presby) Emmi also started where she left off – with a win, but that was ten years ago, prior to marriage, setting up a business, and racing occasionally on the woman’s pro tour.

Despite the absence of any natural snow, Okemo offered over 130 racers good snow and plenty of cover. The War Dance race hill does not generally strike fear into the hearts of competitors, but it was hard and fast, providing an appropriate challenge for masters seeking to get comfortable with their newer equipment and their older bodies.

In a bullet of a first run course Johnson (class 3) took the lead over Bill Withington (class 1) who finished half a second behind despite reducing a GS panel to splinters coming onto the flats. Ten racers were lurking within one second of Withington, leaving the overall up for grabs.

John Pierce (class 3) was the fastest to arrive at the finish in the second run, but with Johnson a close second, Johnson took the overall race by a solid .6 seconds with Pierce in second overall. Withington, fourth in the second run, settled for third in the overall.

Kathy Rae Emmi (class 3), in her first masters race since winning the year-end title ten years ago, showed little signs of rust after her ten-year hiatus. Emmi sped to a 1.4 second lead over Lori O’Brien (class 3) in the first run and then withstood a challenge by Melissa (Welch) Paterson (class 1) to take the overall win. Patterson, a former UVM ski team standout, who has not skied in the past two years, won the second run to move into second in the overall. O’Brien fended off a second run charge by Nadine Price (class 4) to wrap up third place.

In the class competition, the 11’s (75+) were well represented with Nate Grifkin winning a close race over Adelbert Ames, Richard Wood, and Donald McNamara. In a match-up that dates nearly back to the dawn of skiing, Paul Rich eked out a win over rival Larry Voelker in class 10. Haldor Reinholt made his one eastern race start a memorable one before returning to Aspen for the winter by winning the 8’s by nine seconds. In the 7’s Steve Foley confirmed that short (skis, that is) is beautiful by winning on a pair of 168 cm. slalom skis.

Several years ago class 6 racer, Gay Folland, made a three- hour trudge to the Okemo race only to lose both skis in the third gate. Seeking to break the hex, Folland made the trip worth her while by taking class 6 honors over Tammy Marcinuk and Barbara Favale.

At the awards ceremony, praise was heaped on race host, Okemo along with series sponsors: Elan, Swix, and Artech.