The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Heavy Medal!
This past weekend, Skylar Kraatz, Sarah Person, Lizzie Curvin, Morgan Hamilton, Meed Geary and Ansley Potoker, along with coach Marni Joclyn and parent coaches Steve Hamilton and Craig Person, all from the Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team, headed to Ski Cooper for Council Cup and the final opportunity to qualify for the Alpine Junior Olympics.
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They rocked! All totaled, between them they collected 14 medals, eight top-10 ribbons, three podium sweeps, and one “golden ticket” to the JOs.
The race began on Saturday with the Super G speed event with teammates Skylar Kraatz and Lizzie Curvin ending up in an incredible tie for first place and Sarah Person collecting the bronze for third place after the first run.
Teammate Morgan Hamilton followed close behind with fifth place, earning Crested Butte four of the top 10 positions at the awards.
Second run ended with another sweep, this time Lizzie coming up with gold, Skylar with the silver and Sarah again grabbing the bronze. Morgan won another top 10 finish, placing seventh after the second run. Ansley Potoker, our only J4 girl racing, finished with a respectable 14th place in the morning and a 15th place showing in the afternoon. Meed Geary also earned himself two top-20 finishes for the SG event.
Sunday, Sarah shined in the giant slalom (GS) event earning silver for second place in the first run and Morgan stepping up to win the third-place spot for a bronze. Lizzie followed close behind to earn a fourth-place ribbon. Sarah came back strong in the afternoon to earn the top spot on the podium with an amazing win for gold. Morgan earned herself the fourth-place ribbon and Lizzie remained in the top 10 with a sixth-place finish. Skylar skied strong, just missing the top 10 with 11th place in the morning and then 13th in the afternoon.
Meed Geary, Crested Butte’s only J3 racer in the men’s event, tore up the GS course to grab first-place finishes in both races of the day for two more gold medals. Ansley again was able to finish in the top half of the J4 ladies with two top-20 finishes.
Monday, the final day of racing brought the slalom (SL) race and results would determine who would get to go to JOs. First run, Sarah pushed down the hill into the second-place spot, earning silver once again. Morgan remained in the top 10 with an eighth-place finish. Lizzie ran into trouble, missing a gate, and had to hike but still finished and Skylar in a charge down the course, caught a tip and lost a ski, resulting in a DNF for the first run.
In the final race of the weekend, it was Sarah Person who took the gold by only two tenths of a second over Skylar Kraatz, who skied strong, taking the second-place spot for silver. Lizzie was able to hold onto 10th place for yet another ribbon. Meed missed a gate in the first SL run and had to hike but was able to hold onto a top-20 spot for both runs. Ansley finished 23rd in the first run but improved her time by four seconds in the second run to earn another top-20 spot.
Results from Council Cup are then tallied by taking the three best finishes out of all six races, with the lowest number of points being the winner. In the end Sarah Person came in with the best score of four (two firsts and one second), Skylar with 5 points (one first and two seconds), and Lizzie with six points (two firsts and one fourth).
They earned their final podium sweep as the top three best overall for woman at Council Cup, but only Sarah heads to the J3 Junior Olympics this week in Vail, to join the best of the best in the Rocky Mountain Division and Central Mountain Division alpine racers. Congratulations, Sarah!
For more information about alpine racing or the Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team, please contact Drew Cesati at 349-2253.
