At the two GS and two slalom races, over 70 student athletes vied for positions to represent their high school teams in the 2023 CIF/CNISSF Championships held this year at Northstar, CA, during the first full week of March.

Mammoth Mountain’s Race Department, led by Chip White, maintained safe and clean courses for all student athletes to safely and fairly sharpen their best efforts on the snow.

Highlights and top five finishers in each discipline include:

Thursday’s GS skiing events: MHS’s freshman, Jenna Lynch, dominated the field (even beating the men athletes in the first race) in both races followed closely by MHS’s Ashlynn Parsons, Sophie McMahan, Kendall Speiler with Stella Vanderhurst and Lana Sugimura exchanging 5th places each day.  MHS’s Jake McConnell dominated both the men’s GS races followed by MHS’s Tanner Knott, BUHS’s Will Twomey and MHS’s Mark McConnell, who earned second, third and fourth places respectively in both races.  BUHS’s Wyatt Schober and RIM’s Chase Hopkins placed fifth places in the first and second of GS races.

In the GS snowboard races MHS’s Logan Leggette won both races followed by MHS’s Kate Bankson (2nd places in both races) and Kate Delson who placed fifth in both races.  RIM’s Neveah Mills placed third and fourth while her teammates Mikayla Ortiz and Emily Lopez placed third in the first and second races respectively.  In the men’s GS events, BUHS’s Blake Wizenread crushed both races (by close to six whole seconds in the first race). RIM’s Cody Halquist, Ethan Walters and Alan Taylor placed second through fourth places in both the GS’s while MHS’s freshman Rylen Nash broke into the top five spot in GS #1 race and RIM’s Ronnie Hammer placed fifth in the GS #2 race.

Friday was full of quick tricky turns with lots of smashing gates in the slalom races.  MHS’s Ashlynn Parsons consistently won both the women’s ski slalom races with her teammate Sophie McMahan chasing her to second place (she DNF’d in the SL #2); Jenna Lynch placing 3rd and 2nd; Kendal Speiler 4th and 3rd; Stella Vanderhurst knocking on the door with a 5th and 4th place and Lana Sugimura with a DNF and 5th place.  In the men’s skiing slalom events MHS Tanner Knott and Jake McConnell exchanged first and second places followed by Mark McConnell (3rd and 4th places); BUHS’s Will Twomey (4th and 3rd places); BUHS’s Jacob Gilbert (5th and 6th places) and Wyatt Schober (8th and 5th place).

Once again, MHS’s Logan Leggette impressed the field by winning both the snowboard slalom events followed by BUHS’s Emily Lopez who placed second in both races.  MHS’s Kate Bankson (3rd and 5th places), Kate Delson (6th and 4th places) and RIM’s Nevaeh Mills (4th and 3rd places) all placed in the slalom’s top five positions.  Once again, BUHS’s Blake Winzenread commanded the field in the first men’s slalom snowboard race (DQ’d the second race).  RIM’s Cody Halquist followed with 2nd and 1st places; Ronnie Hammer (3rd and DNF); and Ethan Walters (5th and 2nd); MHS’s Landon Witherill 4th in both races; and Grayson Hodges placed 5th in the second race.

Congratulations to all the athletes!  Our second of the two CNISSF South 2 Qualifier race series will be held here at Mammoth Mountain, on February 16 & 17.