DHS snowboard team is riding strong

The Davis High School snowboard team had its first giant slalom race of the season at Alpine Meadows resort, and although the temperatures were low, spirits were high at the race course.

Brian Simmons headed up the DHS varsity boys team with a 13th-place finish overall; teammates Nick Wehrhan (20th), JC Roeckl-Navazio (21st) and Colin Wehrhan (22nd) finished within .41 of a second of each other. Kyle DiBiasio (27th), Casey Schnathorst (28th), Brennan Raven (30th), Andrew Steeples (31st) and Warren Quattrochi (34th) finished their races within 2 seconds of each other. Ben Simmons also had one of the fastest race times, a 16th-place finish, but a slip on the course in his second run kept him out of contention. Despite consistently even times, the DHS boys finished fifth overall.

Brittany Gingerich–Brooks led the varsity girls racers with a top-10 finish (seventh-place overall), trailed by teammates Valerie Hurst (15th), Chris Roeckl-Navazio (22nd) and Tarin Noonan (26th). Sophomores Alice Honig (30th) and Natalie Wheeler (32nd) had clean runs, testing out their giant slalom technique and getting a feel for the course. Freshmen Ava Mills (33rd) and Brangwyn Foley (34th) competed in their first race ever, and came off the course having successfully navigated the course and eager for more race opportunities. The varsity girls racers also ended the day in fifth-place overall. The combined scores of the boys and girls varsity race teams earned Davis another fourth-place finish this week.

Once again the open class was dominated by Davis racers with Colin Cohan finishing first, Sean Mulvihill second, Dakota Spycher third, Dean Boswell fourth and Aiden Prien fifth. Ian Miramontes (9th) and Jared McNece (10th) also finished in the top 10.

Head coach Marcia Heller said: “It was a glorious day on the hill. We had a dozen athletes that had never had a giant slalom race before and everyone came off the course beaming. Being able to provide a safe, well-run program that exposes our athletes to this sport and (giving them) a chance to compete at this level is what it is all about.”

When asked about the overall race results Heller said: “We have a lot of really fast kids this year, but apparently so do the other teams — we’ll see how it goes as the season progresses.”

The DHS snowboard team is scheduled for its second slalom race next week at Boreal.