Top DPSEF J3 racer, Luca Genasci earned an invitation to participate in the 2007/08 season Topolino Shootout to be held at Snow King in Jackson, Wyoming.  This event is by invitation only, and a real achievement for J3 racers.  The Shootout will take place Jan 2-4, 2008.  Way to go Luca, and best of luck!  Better bring some warm underwear, you will need it!

Today, the Top 30 male and female racers from the 5 divisions of the Western Region met at Mammoth Mountain for their Super G training run. In the girls, J4 group the top three spots went to the (3) Far West Region racers. Lena Andrews of Sugar Bowl Ski Team placed 1st with a time of 1:14.45 followed closely by Allene Kennedy of Squaw Valley Ski Team with a time of 1:14.51 and Diamond Peak’s Lila Lapanja placed 3rd with a time of 1:15.79. Lila took 1st place on March 10 and March 11 at Mammoth Mountain in the Super-G besting both Lena and Allene.

The Far West J4 boys also dominated in the Super G. Max Hall of Squaw Valley placed 1st with a time of 1:14.15, followed by Eric Haferman with a time of 1:15.02 and Diamond Peak’s Ty Sprock was in hot pursuit, finishing 3rd, with a time of 1:15.30. Kelly Kai Tokunaga of Snow Summit finished 5th with a time of 1:17.56.

It should be an exciting Super-G race tomorrow when the Ladies and Men meet again in the Super-G. Check out the full results of by visiting the 2007 Western Region JIII Junior Olympics & J4 Festival Website.

With two gold medals in hand, Diamond Peak Ski Team’s J4 racer, Lila Lapanja, summed up last weekend’s “Fred’s Freebie” Super-G at Mammoth Mountain with a big smile: “I was inspired by (Olympic gold medalist) Julia Mancuso and just wanted to have as much fun as possible and to have that kind of fun on this kind of course, you had to go straight…so I went straight.” Read the rest of this entry »

After enduring and mastering a series of qualifying races and time trials, a trio of skiers from Diamond Peak Ski Team has earned top spots for a trip to the J3/4 Western Region Junior Olympics. J3 racer, Luca Genasi, and J4 teammates, Ty Sprock and Lila Lapanja, are poised to step it up again and go against the top J3s and J4s in the entire Western United States. Diamond Peak’s Alex Tanner also secured an alternate spot for the J3 men. The Western J3 Junior Olympics/J4 Festival is an annual event where the very best 12 - 14 year old USSA competitors from the five (5) Western divisions compete in Super G, Giant Slalom and Slalom over four (4) days. This year’s event will be held at Mammoth Mountain from Thursday, March 22 to Sunday March 25, 2007. Read the rest of this entry »