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.”

On Saturday, Lapanja trumped the competition with a winning time of 54.68 seconds, .82 seconds ahead of Lena Andrews of Sugar Bowl in second and 1.18 seconds in front of third-place racer, Allene Kennedy, of Squaw.

Teammate Grace Dolan clocked a 56.04, which gave her a well-deserved fourth place finish.

J4 racer Katherine Fulwider landed on the first age with a 14th place finish of 59.38, followed by Elizabeth Ryan in 19th (100.89), Julia Bjorkman in 24th (1:01.91), and Makenzi Malvey in the top half of the field with a 1:04.36.

Day two was nail-biter for the women when Lena Andrews and Dolan set the stage with impressive times of 52.90 and 53.44 seconds, respectively.

One of the last to run, Lapanja nailed the course and finished with a scorching time of 52.73, giving her the gold and Dolan the bronze in a suspenseful finish.

“The course was fun and fast,” said a very pleased Dolan. “It felt great to be on the podium.”

On Sunday, Fulwider, Bjorkman, and Malvey rounded out the field with respective times of 57.53 seconds (for 15th), 1:00.13 (27th), and 1:01.02 (30th). Ryan did not race.

Challenged by an extremely competitive field and slower, warmer courses both days, the team’s J4 men topped out with Ty Sprock landing a ninth place on Saturday (56.27 seconds) and an 11th on Sunday (55.29), followed by teammate Erik Johnson who finished with top-third tier times of 1:00.27 (28th place) on Saturday and 58.65 seconds (for 29th ) on Sunday.

The J5 boys and girls also left their mark in the giant slalom on another course during the weekend. Marie Johnson stole the show both days with two, solid first-place performances.

She edged out Anna Harleen of Sugar Bowl (2nd with 1:32.15) and Gabriela Knutson of Auburn-Alpine (third with a 1:32.78) with a winning, combined time of 1:31.39 on Saturday.

On Sunday, Marie grabbed gold again with a time of 1:31.69 over Knutson in second (1:32.91) and Harleen (1:33.16) in third place.

First-year J5 racer, Harrison Holetz, stepped up as the sole Diamond Peak skier for the men and came home with a bronze podium finish on day one with a fast time of 1:31.14 seconds and a 1:33.24 for a close fifth-place result on Sunday.

For the ski racing season’s finale, Lapanja and Sprock now head off to the Western Region Junior Olympics, Mar. 22 to 25, at Mammoth Mountain.

They then return to join their J4/5 team for the 2007 J4/5 Championships, Mar. 30 through April 1, at Sugar Bowl.

For complete race results and more information, please visit the Far West website

Article reprinted from the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza