Jack Crawford brought home the boys’ trophy from the 77th annual Enquist Slalom at Mount Seymour, leading a number of great results for the Whistler Mountain Ski Club’s U16 skiers.
Crawford won Saturday’s (Jan. 26) race and captured a silver on Sunday (Jan. 27), which gave him the overall best time for the trophy. Max Peiffer finished second on Saturday and fourth on Sunday, while Cameron Alexander shared the podium with Crawford on Sunday in third.
Alex Gershon and Jeffrey Cadman each had fifth- and sixth-place finishes over the two days, while Riley Seger, Carson Llewellyn, Griffin Renzoni and Max Kirshenblatt all had top-10 results during the weekend.
Stefanie Fleckenstein and Esme McTavish both picked up silver medals at the event for the best Whistler girls’ finishes. Gabrielle Smith and Sarah Kapur each brought home bronzes and finished in the top six both days.
Mikayla Martin had two top-five results and Cassandra Mah reached the top-10 in both girls’ races. Cheyenne Ling and Claire Baragar each recorded a top-10 finish of their own on the weekend.
The Whistler club hosts the annual Bob Parsons Memorial Super-G for the next U16 event, which goes Feb. 15 to 17.
Henitiuk happy to be back
Chelsea Henitiuk was happy with a 12th-place finish during the World Cup moguls stop in Calgary on Saturday (Jan. 26) after a quick return from injury.
The Whistler resident, who missed the previous World Cup competition with a torn calf muscle, was cleared to compete, but didn’t get much training time in the days leading up to the event.
“I’m still really pleased with (the result) considering the week I had coming back from injury,” Henitiuk said in an email. “I am really happy with the way I’m skiing again so quickly.”
The national team veteran qualified 14th for the final, but lost balance coming into the bottom jump on her next run to settle for 12th. Three Canadians made the six-woman superfinal — Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe finished one-two on the podium and B.C.’s Andi Naude was sixth. Mikael Kingsbury won another event on the men’s side, edging Russia’s Alexandr Smyshiyaev.
The circuit resumes at Utah’s Deer Valley with another World Cup on Thursday (Jan. 31), plus a duals event going Saturday (Feb. 2).
Lepine earns back-to-back podiums
Whistler’s Sarah Lepine started the Nor-Am Cup ski cross season with back-to-back podium finishes, while fellow local Tyler Murray was close to a medal of his own in races held Jan. 24 and 25 at Copper Mountain, Colo.
Lepine, who has finished top-three in the Nor-Am Cup standings each of the past two seasons, finished third in the first race of the series before taking top spot in the Jan. 25 race. Dating back to last season, she has finished on the podium in five consecutive Nor-Am Cup races and also placed third at last year’s nationals.
Fellow B.C. Ski Cross Team member Murray’s top finish at Copper was fourth place on Jan. 24. He followed that with a sixth-place finish the next day.
