Local J4/5 racers from the Diamond Peak Ski Team showed up en force for two days of excellent slalom racing at Sugar Bowl over the weekend, capturing podium spots, top-tens, and front-page results both days.

J5 girls’ ace, Marie Johnson, lead the charge by taking first place both days with combined times of 1:30.70 on Saturday and 1:38.98 on Sunday, beating Gabriela Knudson from Alpine-Auburn Ski Team, who held in second each day.

“It was nerve-wracking,” claimed Johnson. “The overall course was pretty steep and I was wondering if I was going to make it. In slalom, if you ‘la-la-la’ and lose focus, you get late and you’re out. But the snow held up and was nice and firm. I was relieved. It felt really cool standing on top of the podium each day.”

Harrison Holetz pulled it off for the J5 boys and came home with a fifth (1.38.11) on Saturday and a third place podium finish (1:51.34) on Sunday even after falling on the first run.

On Saturday, teammates Ian Reeves, Nelson Bedient, and Stefan Arnone took 14th, 20th, and a tie for 23rd, respectively.

Kai Arnone and Tommy Dolan raced well, but had a little trouble on the course and did not place.

The J4 women remained strong as proven.

Lila Lapanja continued her season’s podium streak by taking third place on both days with times of 1:33.19 and 1:33.98.

On Saturday, racers Grace Dolan took 10th (1:41.50), Katherine Fulwider, 11th (1:41.67), and Lizzy Ryan, 14th (1:41.95), while Julia Bjorkman (1:46.59) and Makenzi Malvey (1:48.83) landed top 25 spots with 19th and 24th place finishes.

Sunday saw Grace Dolan (1:38.13) and Lizzy Ryan (1:41.95) on the front page again with respective eighth place and 12th place finishes, and Makenzi Malvey and Katherine Fulwider skied into 18th and 22nd place. Bjorkman missed a gate, but skied strongly.

Once again, J4 racer Ty Sprock was not going to leave the races without getting on the steps, which he did, both days, with double third-place trophies.

On Saturday, he clocked in at 1:29.40, followed by a strong performance from Erik Johnson (1:36.41) and a 31st spot by Kyle Reeves.

On Sunday, Sprock nailed time of 1:31.34 as the lone racer on that day for the J4 boys.

Coach Josee Lacasee proudly summed up the weekend. “We may not have the big numbers [of kids on the team], but we put kids on the podium each day and on Sunday had kids from every group–J4 girls, J4 boys, J5 girls and J5 boys-up there,” Lacasee said. “That says a lot about the program, the coaching, and the kids. The kids are awesome. They build each other up in training and then they go out and get the results on race day.”

For complete race results and more information, please visit the Far West website and click on Alpine FWS Races Results.

Article reprinted from North Lake Tahoe Bonanza