US Racers attend Canadian Races
The Canadian National Championships were held at Silver Star in British Columbia on March 23 and 24th. Representing the USA were Lyta Foulk, Chris Henery, Peter McMann, Scott Edgerton, Chip Dorroh and junior racer Cedar Mattole. The GS was held on Saturday and the Sprint Classic on Sunday with all US racers reaching the podium. In both races, former team member Peter McMann captured the silver medal and current team member Chris Henery the bronze. Lyta Foulk and Cedar Mattole placed 2nd in both events in the the women’s elite category and junior category respectively. Scott Edgerton also placed 2nd in the Master’s division both days with Chip Dorroh 7th on Saturday and 3rd on Sunday in the Master’s group.
The Eastern Canadian Championships were held March 23 and 24’th at Mt Blanc and Mt. Tremblant respectively. US racers Andy Minier and Mark Haberle made the trip to compete. The first day under windy and crisp conditions featured a turny GS course the suited Minier’s style very well allowing him to post the fastest time of the day in run #1 and second fastest in run #2. Haberle was able to post the fourth fastest time in run #1 and sixth fastest in run #2. Gate judging was strict and all racers accumulated a fair amount of penalties. The result was a second place finish for Minier and a seventh place for Haberle.
The second day featured an excellent sprint classic race at Mt Tremblant. The course included a jump two gates into the run providing for some tactical strategy and a rap that also had racers entering and exiting in a number of different ways. This race featured Minier posting the fourth fastest time on run #1 and sixth fastest time on run #2. Mark was able to post the fifth fastest on run #1 and fourth fastest time on run #2. Accounting for penalties this put Minier in 5th place and Mark in 3rd for his first podium of the season.
The caliber of racing at the Eastern Canadian Championships was top notch with the Telemark Quebec team dominating the standings and the Ontario Telemark team also showing strong. After the races there was much dialog about creating a stronger North-South connection between Ontario Telemark and Telemark Quebec with US East. We will be coordinating races and schedules next year and many in Canada are looking forward to the race camp at Sugarbush as well as Nationals (assuming they land on the East coast again next year). All in all the races were of the highest caliber and the US athletes were welcomed by their Canadian competitors.