Ski and Snowboard Club Vail dominates U14 Rocky/Central Regional Alpine ski championships

Ski and Snowboard Club Vail took capitalized on its home-hill advantage at last month’s Rocky/Central Region Alpine ski championships, claiming 16 of the available 30 podiums over four days of racing at Golden Peak. SSCV had eight event wins, including all six female individual event winners.

“Phenomenal results by the Vail U14 women’s team, dominating the podiums with 14 out of 18 possible podiums in the event,” said Rob Worrell, SSCV’s head U14 coach. “The commitment, grit and hard work really allowed these U14 Vail girls to shine at these championships.”

Mari Renick and Lauren Hopkins went 1-2 out of 100 finishers in the opening super-G on March 13, working the 36-gate 334-meter Golden Peak Race course in 56.44 and 57.67 seconds, respectively. Isabelle Heinrich-Clark just missed the podium, sliding into fourth by 0.32 seconds, and Gayer Xania (59.80) finished sixth. Renick and Hopkins replicated their placements the next day, finishing first and second in a pair of giant slaloms, with Heinrich-Clark rounding out the first GS podium and snagging another fourth in the second.

Heinrich-Clark got to the top of the podium on March 15, winning the day’s first slalom by 2.06 seconds and the second by 1.33. The SSCV girls closed out the competition by sweeping the parallel podium, where Renick took her fourth regional title.

Luke Hodgkinson led the SSCV boys with wins the first GS and slalom races and second-place finishes in the second GS and slalom races and the parallel. Hodgkinson also rounded out the podium in third in the super-G, where he was followed closely by his teammate Calen White in fourth. White was one of five SSCV boys to have multiple top-10 finishes.

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“On the men’s side, Luke Hodgkinson hit the podium in every single race, showing super strong consistency and proving Luke is at the top of this U14 group,” Worrell said. “The first-year boys, 2010 year-of-birth, were not on any podiums, yet showed a lot of depth in the top 10 and should be hitting the podium daily next year at these championships.”

For full results, visit ussalivetiming.com.