Coffey Aces Colorado Cup Breckenridge Slalom
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| by Alan Cole |
January 8, 2009
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Coffey Aces Slalom at Breckenridge
AVSC's Joanna Coffey wasted no time in proving she can compete at the Colorado Junior Ski Cup in Breckenridge last weekend, January 3-5. The 16 year-old alpine ski racer won Mondays slalom race by 1 and ½ seconds against a field of 38 other competitors. "Joanna has been skiing well in slalom and if she keeps this up she'll be one to watch by the end of the season," said AVSC alpine ability head coach Kent Towlerton.
Coffey's teammate Sara Andrews finished 5th overall, and AVSC newcomer Kourtney Mitchell took 14th. "This result was key for Kourtney because she's now automatically qualified to compete in the rest of the Surefoot Colorado Cup races this season," said Towlerton. Kate Mickey finished 20th and Laura Sudmeier was 21st.
Saturday and Sunday's giant slalom races yielded mixed results for the AVSC ability team, with Coffey once again flying down the course to finish third in Sunday's giant slalom race. She was second place for her J2 (15-16 year old) age group. First-year J2 racer Katie Ryan skied a solid race to crack the top-10 in ninth place. It shows what Katie can accomplish and gives her more motivation going forward, said Towlerton. Sara Andrews finished just out of the top-10 in 11th place.
Kourtney Mitchell, last years National Junior Skiercross champion, took 31st out of 76 racers. "Kourtney's got great potential. She's a strong skier who needs to work on her jumping and fix some bad habits," said Towlerton. Mitchell's teammate Kate Mickey finished 41st.
The best result for the AVSC men came from Micah Evonitz, who posted a 14th place result in Monday's slalom. Glenwood Springs AVSC racer Kevin Hartman was 16th, Tyler Nelson finished 20th and Jonathan Woodrow was 28th. Contrary to most other sports, alpine ski racers work to reduce their competition points in order to improve their overall ranking. "Our goal as a team was for our skiers to work on cutting their points in half this weekend," said Towlerton. "Any day where you can halve your points is a good day." Tyler Nelson had the men's top finish in giant slalom on Sunday, coming 29th out of 118 racers.
"We've got a good block of training time coming up before more races later this month," said Towlerton. "Our team will have the chance to hone their reflexes in slalom to really move fast in Telluride and Beaver Creek."
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For details, contact
Alan Cole
AVSC
(970) 205-5104
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