The top two racers on the Douglas High girls' ski team came roaring out of the gates last week at the Tahoe Basin League season-opener at Alpine Meadows,
Sophomore Hillary Sapp took second and junior Crystal Rutledge took seventh to help lead the Tigers to a fifth-place finish overall in the giant slalom event.
The skiers had to battle through rainy conditions, but Sapp bettered her first-run time of 41.87 seconds with a 40.8 on her second run to take second.
Rutledge shaved nearly four seconds off her first-run time for a combined 1:25/40.
"This was a true accomplishment since all of the best racers in the Tahoe league were at this meet, which wasn't the case for the last race.
"It's exciting to have two of the best high school ski racers in the state at Douglas."
The girls' score was rounded out by Jennifer Stice in 25th, Alicia Dreyer in 29th, Kristin
Lovell in 32nd and Jenna Dykes in 35th.
On the boys' side, Douglas struggled through a rough first race.
One of the team's top skiers, Anton Anger, was out of town and freshman standout Troy Cohee was 13th after the first run but missed a gate on the second and was disqualified.
Another freshman, Grant Denny, was the team's top finisher, taking 17th.
Mackenzie Bennington took 24th, Tyler Johnson finished 33rd, Darren Vega was 36th, Taylor Kersten-Wines took 40th and Ira Kersten-Wines took 42nd.
Truckee won the race, South Tahoe took second, North Tahoe took third, Incline was fifth followed by Douglas and Whittell.
In the junior varsity race, Douglas' Brock Crawford finished 17th, Andrew Forest was 18th, Baxter Harris took 19th, Gavin Fitzhugh was 26th, Nolan Lackey was 29th and Alexander Cerney finished 30th.
