ROARING FORK BROADCASTING COMPANY
For the first time in four years, the Skiers are living up to their name.
Aspen High School left their home slope of Aspen Highlands on Friday with not one but two state championship banners, winning the Colorado Alpine skiing title on both the boys and girls sides. The two victories came in dramatically different fashions but share a similar outcome: Aspen is back on top of the Colorado high school skiing world.
“Sometimes it does feel like a Rich Allen, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer lot of pressure, being Aspen Skiers, you want to bring it home,” senior Eden Bohart said. “And then having the races at home was a lot of pressure, so it’s just so exciting and so rewarding. … A lot of hard work went into it and it’s just amazing to see the team all come together and everyone’s just so happy.”
The state championship week on the home turf was nearly a flip of how the regular season went for Aspen: The boys were the steady, top-of-the-podium contenders all year long while the girls had to build momentum during the qualifying meet calendar.
“The girls team was kind of a silent sleeper for us. I think they just grew throughout the season,” Aspen head coach Jennifer Morandi-Benson said. “They didn’t win every race, but they were consistently in the top three all season, whereas the boys were winning a lot of the races and so it seemed like they were stronger earlier.”
On Thursday, the girls set the tone with a first place in the giant slalom, making the rest of the field chase them in Friday’s slalom. The boys, meanwhile, fell victim to a toughly set GS course on Thursday and had to come from behind on Friday.
“It just means a lot of hard work,” sophomore Matt McDermott said of winning the state title. “We all ski a lot. We all put many years into this since we were little kids. … It’s great. It just shows how committed we are, how deep we are as a team.”
Aspen’s girls carried an 11-point edge into Friday over other teams thanks to three finishers in the top 10 in the giant slalom, led by junior Rocksy Kroeger’s fourth place, Bohart’s fifth place and senior Darienne Kenny’s ninth place.
The same three suspects did the damage for the Skiers on Friday, as well: Kenny placed fourth, Bohart placed sixth and Kroeger placed seventh. For good measure, senior Lexi Munro placed eighth to give Aspen four skiers in the top eight.
The boys side, however, had to earn every bit of their ultimate three-point victory over Steamboat Springs for the state title. The boys suffered four did-not-finishes or disqualifications out of their seven skiers on Thursday, but sophomore Josh Stephen took second overall, freshman Ronan Curran finished 10th and junior Jimmy Stokes took 13th to keep the dream of a state title alive. If one of those three did not score, the team would not have collected any points and would effectively have been removed from state contention.
“We felt confident in our boys team, but it definitely got a little nerve-wracking around here,” Kenny said. “It was really exciting to see them pull it off.”
Friday went much smoother, however, with just 0.01 seconds costing McDermott a state individual title, but a slew of red A’s dotted the podium and the leaderboard.
McDermott, who came within one spot of a GS state championship in his freshman campaign a year ago, put down a first run in the slalom that well exceeded the field. He completed the course in 31.66 seconds, the only run under 32 seconds.
A small hiccup on the second run brought Summit’s Seth Montgomery — winner of both Alpine events last year and Thursday’s GS — back into title contention. In the end, Montgomery slid past on the narrowest of margins: His combined time was 1:03.17. McDermott’s was 1:03.18.
Those two pulled away from the pack, though Stephen collected his second podium of the weekend with a bronze at 1:05.27. Junior Thomas Robinson, one of the unfortunate DNFs the day before, found redemption with a fifth place finish at 1:06.81.
Senior Jaden Schille added a 10th and Curran added a 15th for good measure.
In some ways, the stars aligned for the Skiers to return to the top of the high school skiing standings this season: It was on their home course, and for the first time the Colorado High School Activities Association broke up the championship for the Alpine and Nordic disciplines. AHS’s Nordic program hasn’t been in title contention for the past several seasons, so the distinction could only help the Alpine team.
But in other ways, it was a challenge. Athlete turnout was down, Morandi-Benson said.
In the end, though, the commitment of the athletes came through, winning the league season titles in both slalom categories and the girls giant slalom. On Friday, it gave Aspen more banners to hang.
“We’ve been really consistent as a team throughout the season, but it was never a runaway,” Morandi-Benson said. “Because the season is separate from states, it’s all about how you do in two days and our kids got it done on both days. … You need some talent and you need some luck and it all came together for us.”
It’s the 12th state championship for the boys and the 11th for the girls. Both teams have the second most state championships in the state, behind Summit. And while Morandi-Benson said a sweep is rare, she also wouldn’t say it was a coincidence that both teams won.
“Typically one team will be stronger than another and so for both teams to have been so consistent throughout the year and get it done, it does make sense that both teams did well this year,” Morandi-Benson said. “It doesn’t matter how big your team is, it just matters that you have interested and passionate skiers who are dedicated and come out every day. We just had an amazing core group for both boys and girls.”
While the competition isn’t as serious as an International Skiing Federation meet, and the stakes may not be as high, the high school circuit provides an opportunity that the athletes don’t have in their club competition: competing as a team.
It took a fleet of not only gifted skiers, but also a coaching staff that earned Coach of the Year honors for the first time in Morandi-Benson’s career and a community that provided resources, time and a place to ski to get them there.
“It’s so much more fun as a team,” McDermott said. “It takes a little bit of stress away, different from club. … We push each other, rely on each other, just make each other better.”
Per the roster sheet from WesternSlopeLeagueCo.org, Aspen graduates 11 seniors as Alpine champs.