Limited training due to the Tahoe Basin’s lack of snow and a very short, no-room-for-error course did not stop the Diamond Peak Ski Team’s J4s and J5s from impressive podium and top-ten finishes over the weekend at the annual Lynn Payne Memorial giant slalom races at Kirkwood on Saturday and Sunday, December 16 and 17.First-year J4 racer Ty Sprock made short work of the competition and took first place on both days with a time of 56.26 on Saturday and 55.69 on Sunday, edging out his closest rivals by close to a second each race. Teammate Erik Johnson clocked an impressive 59.30 the first day, landing him an 8th place finish and improved his time on Sunday to bring him up to 7th with a 57.26.

The 2005-6 Far West J4 girls arrived packed with talent, but Lila Lapanja dusted the rust off her skis and set herself above the field with a 58.68 bronze finish the first day and a 57.19 silver on Sunday. On Saturday, the top-ten finish times were extremely close, with racer Grace Dolan taking 6th place after an excellent first run with a combined time of 59.08 and Elizabeth Ryan securing 9th with a run of 1:03.01. Katherine Fulwider and Makenzi Malvey rounded out the field with top-fifteen finishes.

Dolan made her mark on Sunday as well with a strong 6th place finish and Ryan skied her way to 12th place. Fulwider started strong, but lost an edge on one of the final gates on her first run and fell.

Marie Johnson impressed everyone watching the J5 girls with two 1st-place results on both days. She overtook her competition by more than a second on Saturday with a time of one minute, 2.52 seconds. Teammate Lauren Keller skied well to a 7th place finish with a 1:09.02 for her first race of the season.

Johnson delivered an exciting performance in a very close race on Sunday, and took first again by 14-hundreths of a second with a time of 1:01.00. Keller turned up the heat on Sunday, clocking a 1:06.29 and improving her standing to 5th place amongst the J5 girls.

“I’m really proud of all the kids and their performances,” said Coach Vojko Lapanja. “They had no gate training before the races because of the lack of snow, but they showed their competitive spirit and finished high in the standings.”