Despite having not skied on an actual gated course and despite heavy snow, the Douglas ski team battled through the adversity and opened the season with a third place finish last week at Alpine Meadows.
The Tigers boys and girls combined for 254 points on the giant slalom course, coming in behind Truckee and North Tahoe.
"They did very well considering," Douglas coach Rob Parks said. "We haven't had much of a chance to be on the mountain at all yet this season, so to come out and ski as well as we did, it went well."
Douglas hadn't had a chance to do much training on the mountain leading up to the opening race because their simply wasn't a mountain to train on. The school's contract with Kirkwood expired leading into this season and it was only the middle of last month that they were able to acquire a new contract with Heavenly.
"Some of our kids had been training with the Kirkwood Ski Education Foundation and others were established at Sierra at Tahoe leading up to the season, so as a result they came out and did very well Wednesday," Parks said "Others weren't able to get on a mountain beforehand and they struggled. Overall, most did really well. We're very encouraged for the rest of the season."
Crystal Rutledge led the Douglas girls and posted the top time out of any of the Tiger racers with a 1:08.54 combined time, good enough for 10th in the girls' race.
Hillary Sapp took 13th, potsing a time of 1:15.05 despite falling on her first run.
"Hillary is one of our best racers, and the conditions were very bad," Parks said. "For her to fall on a run like that, you know the course must have been tough. It was pretty impressive that she finished where she did, even with the fall."
Avery Carrig took 14th with a time of 1:16.94 and Kristin Lovell took 19th with a time of 1:22.02.
Alicia Dreyer, Jennifer Stice, Jenna Dykes and Danielle Kochen took 23rd through 26th respectively rounding out a third-place finish for the girls with a combined score of 140.
On the boys' side, Anton Anger led the Tigers with an 18th place finish, turning in a combined time of 1:10.98.
Brian Sergott finished 20th with a time of 1:13.93, Michael Barnes took 21st with a time of 1:15.00, Charlie Cross took 23rd with a time of 1:15.09, Joey Gmuender took 30th with a time of 1:23.11 and Cody Burkhauser took 33rd with a time of 1:48.46.
In the junior varsity race, Katie Neri took 16th and Cassie Parr took 17th for the girls while Kyle Neddenreip took 11th, Eric Dugan took 12th, Darren Vega finished 16th, Teddy Williams took 21st, Nick Campagna finished 26th and Trevor Nenzel took 27th for the boys.
Douglas' home race is today at Heavenly starting at 10 a.m.
-- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
