Starting from the top down, the Masters raced Slalom at Squaw Valley.

Margarethe Richter capped a fine weekend with two wins in Class 10.
Reinhard Richter had a 4th on Saturday and a 3rd on Sunday in Mens Class 10.
Brian Smith topped his 2nd on Saturday with a win on Sunday in Class 8.
Heinrich Klobuczek, just getting his slalom legs under him took a 3rd Saturday
and a 6th on Sunday in Class 5.

J1,2,3’s at Mammoth GS

J2’s – Alex Fulton had a good weekend with a 9th on Saturday and 3rd on Sunday, Lila was back on Sunday with an 8th place finish.
J3’s – 2nd year J3‘s Kerrie and Julia had some top 20 finishes for the weekend.
All of the first year J3’s had good finishes and are off to a great start for the season.

J4/5 Tech Kombi at Boreal

The Tech Kombi is several phases of slalom gates and giant slalom gates. Boreal put on a good training event. The race times reflected how well the racers reacted to the rhythm changes on the course. Early light edge pressure was rewarded with a fast time.
A good learning experience for all the racers.

Photos included with the rest of this entry.

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In Saturday’s races, Margarethe Richter took 2nd place in women’s class 10. Out doing her spouse Reinhard, who took a 4th in mens class 10.
In the tough women’s Open class, Linda Crowell finished 5th with a former DP master, Liesl Planke taking the win.
In the men’s class 8, Brian Smith took 5th and Sam Crowell placed 7th.
Men’s class 6, Reed Robinson, an oft times DP master, finished 3rd.

Sunday’s races were canceled. High winds and the on-coming storm pulled the plug.

Welcome Alby! Diamond Peak Ski Education Foundation is proud to announce the newest member to its coaching staff, Alby Dean. Alby will lead the very successful J3 program. Read Alby’s bio.

At the April 2-5 Far West Championships at Mammoth Mountain, the Diamond Peak J4/J5 skiers had a strong finish to a great season.

On the first day of racing, difficult weather conditions brought early challenges to the skiers. After watching the girls finish their races in extremely high winds, the mountain closed down many of the lifts, postponing the boys’ J5 second run and the boys’ J4 single run.

Despite the high wind, the Diamond Peak girls skied well with three top 15 finishes. J5 Amanda Pretti was on the podium with a second place finish followed by teammate Belle Johnson (tenth). In J4 super G action, Lauren Keller finished 15th.

The difficult course, rather than the wind, was the challenge in the April 3 slalom races. Nelson Bedient brought the team its second podium with his third place finish in the J5 division.

The girls J5 skiers had three top 15 finishes: Amanda Pretti (sixth), Erica Kennedy (tenth) and Hannah Laurie (14th).

In the J4 division, the team had two girls, Remi Wolf (11th) and Hannah Johnson (14th), and two boys, Zane Bensing (12th) and Gavin Chen (13th) in the top 15.

In the GS on April 4 the team continued with strong results, with seven top 15 finishes:

Nelson Bedient (fourth) and teammate Winston Pretti (seventh) led the J5 boys, with Amanda Pretti (seventh) and Erica Kennedy (tenth) leading the girls.

In the J4 division, Hannah Johnson (fifth) and Remi Wolf (tenth) placed in the top 15 for the girls, with Ian Reeves (eleventh) having a great finish for the boys.

On April 5 the boys completed their super G and GS races from Thursday. The J5 race results were close. Diamond Peak boys Nelson Bedient (fifth) and Winston Pretti (seventh) finished in the top 15.

After concluding the season, coach Josee Lacasse was impressed with the results of all her skiers.

“Everyone continued to improve throughout the season, skiing to their ability and responding to the pressure of difficult terrain, conditions and weather,” Lacasse said. “I am so proud of the entire team.”

The Diamond Peak J4/5 team placed third overall for the season, ahead of many larger teams.