SSCV’s Viktoria Zaytseva claims three titles at U16 Alpine nationals

Well, Viktoria Zaytseva stole the show.

Ski and Snowboard Club Vail qualified seven girls to fill a possible 15 regional spots for the U16 Alpine ski national championships at Mission Ridge in Wenatchee, Washington April 2-5 — a remarkable accomplishment in and of itself — and Zaytseva led the way for the club, claiming all four of its podium finishes and coming home with individual titles in the SkillsQuest competition, the super-G and the overall.

“I am pleased with the strength and resilience our team of seven young women showed at the national championships,” said Adam Chadbourne, the head U16 girls coach at SSCV.

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“Just qualifying for the event is a major accomplishment of which they should all be proud. Though we didn’t get all of the results we had hoped for, as a team, and as individuals, we had some pretty amazing results.”

Racing against the top 51 athletes in the country, SSCV had four girls finish in the top-10 in the SkillsQuest on the first day of competition. After Zaytseva’s win, Katie McDonald, Maizy Douglas and Palmer Ulvestad finished eighth, ninth and 10th, respectively. In the giant slalom the following day, Zaytseva led the way in fourth with Lara Huml — a year of birth 2008 athlete — placing seventh and Douglas coming in 10th. By finishing in the top-three nationally for athletes in her birth year, Huml earned a trip to the Whistler Cup from April 11-17, an accomplishment Chadbourne considered to be another highlight from the week.

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The super-G on April 4 saw Douglas sneak into the top-10 again with an eighth-place finish behind Zaytseva’s victory. The final day’s slalom had six SSCV athletes place in the top-30 with Zaytseva (second), Katie McDonald (12th), Solveig Moritz (14th), Huml (19th), Douglas (27th) and Ulvestad (29th).

In addition to Zaytseva taking the overall win, Douglas came in 10th, McDonald was 14th, Huml finished 17th, Moritz wound up 21st and Ulvestad and Anika Jobson finished 28th and 32nd, respectively in the overall scoring.

“The national championships were a fitting end to a successful and action-packed season for the U16 women,” Chadbourne stated.

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Helland and Leever place in top-10 of overall competition to lead U16 boys

Eight SSCV male U16 skiers competed at Mission Ridge as well, with Jackson Leever’s podium third-place finish in the giant slalom being the program’s top individual finish.

“We’re proud of the skiing the boys displayed,” said U16 boys coach Ian Dunlop. “Mission Ridge had soft snow conditions that made sticking with the leaders very challenging. We showed that our boys were up for the challenge.”

SSCV had at two top-10s in each of the three events and the overall standings, where Oliver Helland placed seventh and Leever took ninth. Dunlop was impressed to see several athletes move up from their start positions and crack into the top group in both tech events.

In the giant slalom, Enzo Napoli went from 50th to ninth and Weston Roach moved up from 41st to 14th. A similar trend manifested itself in the slalom, where Helland went from 32nd to eighth, Ricky Shay went from 40th to 14th, Roach battled from 44th to 16th, Banks Biffle moved up from 50th to 17th and Napoli came from 48th to 18th.

“This shows not only their grit and ability to fight from difficult course conditions, but also that this group of guys is ready to compete at the next level in FIS competitions,” Dunlop stated, noting that all of his 2007 year of birth athletes will be “starting over” next year with international competition at the FIS level.

“They will all need to race from the back of the field to gain their rankings,” he explained.

“If they’re able to do it at the biggest stage this year, I have nothing but confidence they’ll be able to do (it) next season as well! That’s always been our goal with U16s — prepare our athletes to be able to race well from any start position, and especially in difficult conditions.”