The Inside Edge - Boden, Wohlaib shine
(Photo by SSRA PHOTOGRAPHY) Sandpoint skier Farli Boden raced to fifth and ninth place slalom finishes at the Opening Northwest Cup race series last weekend at Mount Spokane.
n World Cup update — Mikaela Shiffrin remains the big story in ladies World Cup skiing. This week she placed 4th in GS and 1st in Slalom at Marbor, France, expanding her overall lead beyond 300 points and slalom lead beyond 500. These were her 26th and 27th career victories, and 5th Slalom win of the year. Not bad for 22 years-old. Resi Steigler was the only other female in the points with 20th in the slalom.
David Chodounsky placed 12th and 16th in slalom at Zagreb, Croatia and Adelboden, Switzerland respectively. Northwest skier Tommy Ford led all US finishers in 19th at the Adelboden Giant Slalom.
n Northwest Cup/U16 Qualifiers — Nearly 200 of the top Junior racers (age 19 and under) in the Northwest converged on Mount Spokane for Giant Slalom and Slalom competition. Several local racers from the Schweitzer Alpine Racing School and the Independence Racing Team competed.
Farli Boden was the top Sandpoint racer, placing 17th in Giant slalom, then posting strong finishes of 5th and 9th in Slalom. Morgan Wohlaib placed 65th in Giant Slalom, then finished an impressive 8th and 17th overall in Slalom. Those results made her the 3rd and 7th place U16 finisher in the slaloms, a great start towards qualifying for the U16 championships.
There were also three racers new to points competition and starting at the back of the pack. These racers need two finishes in each event before they can begin the incremental climb up the points ladder. Catherine Brenner finished all of the races, while brother Baden completed the requisite two Slalom finishes. Myriah Stenvers finished one slalom race while disqualifying from the other. Addison McNamara placed 53rd and 32nd overall in Slalom, which yielded U16 placements of 16th and 10th. The next NW Cup and U16 Qualifiers are at Mission Ridge later this season.
n Junior Race Series Kicks-off — More than 40 young local racers met their coaches and teammates Friday night before stepping out into the frigid air. Hard snow and no crowds allowed for lots of good training and competition. The fastest girls were: Erika Edmundson – 22.05; Avery Edmundson – 22.06; Sydnie Knepper – 24.87; Angelina Knepper – 25.17; and Jocelyn Bouy – 25.62.
The fastest boys were: Slate Fragoso – 20.14; Klein Fragoso – 21.12; Caden Billston – 22.08; Crosby Schmidt – 22.48; and Riley Murphy – 24.90. Racing resumes at 5:30 p.m. this Friday. The coaches like to mix it up as well, and the fastest coach this week was Wesley Simko with a time of 19.84.
n Northern Lights Show — Come on up Saturday night for the popular laser light show. Grab a drink, settle back and enjoy the display.
n Potpourri — We picked up lots of new snow this week, so come explore the depths. Any comments, recommendations or contributions to this column may be sent to Shep Snow by email at shep@thesnowschool.com. Negative feedback should be sent to someone else.
The Inside Edge runs every Thursday during ski season in the Daily Bee sports.