[FWM News] March racing - Mt. Rose, Big Sky Nationals

[Far West Masters news]

(apologies for the delayed news post on Mt. Rose, the webmaster was kinda busy this month with 
nationals preparation and travel!)

March brought spring weather and great racing at Mt. Rose for the annual McKinney Cup.  For those 
able to make the trip to Montana, the 2013 masters national championships at Big Sky provided a 
outstanding week of racing with winter conditions (raceDH or ski powder, what to do?!) and a chance 
to gather with old and new friends from around the country.

Our final Far West Masters races of the 2013 season will be held next week at Squaw Valley, with 
three final races counted for season standings with the Thu-Fri-Sat SG-GS-SL events.  The season 
banquet will be Saturday evening at the Olympic House in Squaw, with a dual fun race on Sunday 
where junior athletes, family, and friends are put together in a team race format.

Mt. Rose McKinney Cup
---------------------

The annual Mt. Rose McKinney Cup races were held in beautiful, sunny spring conditions on the 
weekend of Mar. 9-10. Saturday featured a long SL on Sunrise, while Sunday offered a full-length 
challenging GS on Silver Dollar. Mt. Rose once again outdid themselves welcoming the masters, with 
a breakfast spread at checkin each morning and a tasty buffet for the afternoon post-race party. 
Out on the hill, race director Rees Palermo and the Mt. Rose race crew and volunteers teamed up to 
put together two excellent days of racing.

The McKinney Cup is sponsored by Tamara McKinney in memory of members of her family, Steve, McLane, 
and Frances McKinney. The McKinney family started out skiing in Far West at Mt. Rose and the Cup is 
a perpetual trophy on display over the mantle of the fireplace in the Mt. Rose lodge. Award to the 
skier with the fastest combined time in the weekend event, the women's title was a tightly fought 
battle on every run with Carol Levine (W08) edging out Leslie Marcacci (W01) to defend her McKinney 
Cup title. The men's title had several contenders in the running after Saturday's SL race, but Matt 
Savage took the cup with a powerful display of GS skiing to wrap up a an excellent weekend.

Complete results are posted on the Race Results page along with the updated Season Standings 
rankings for 2013 going into the season finals event at Squaw Valley on Apr. 4-7.

http://farwestmasters.org/raceinfo/2013/results
http://farwestmasters.org/raceinfo/2013/standings

Big Sky National Championships
------------------------------

The 2013 masters national championships were held at Big Sky MT on Mar. 18-23. Big Sky's excellent 
race venues handled a 4-event championship, with the first 3 days for the national DH championship 
followed by 3 days of SG-GS-SL racing of the nationals.

While the calendar and daylight-savings changeover said "spring", the Montana weather countered 
with "it's still winter here!". The week brought snow showers and increasingly cold weather, with a 
glorious sunny day on Tuesday for the second day of DH training followed by powder, showers, and 
single-digit temperatures through the weekend. Nonetheless, the racing conditions were excellent, 
with the cold temperatures producing firm, consistent racing surfaces on all venues. The Big Sky 
race crews and volunteers worked hard all week and put on an outstanding event.

Nearly 200 racers from around the country as well as Canada competed in this year's national 
championships. While Far West's 17-member team was relatively small, we had good results from 
everyone and were proud to bring the Divisions Cup back home to Far West. Former Far West chairman 
Don Smith was reportedly floating home with the trophy after capping his week by claiming the title 
of M10 national SL champion on the final day. Mihai Filimon (M03) and Deb Lewis (W07) took the 
overall in their age classes with 1st place sweeps, with Gate de Mattei taking the M12 title by 
winning the final SL. Good skiing was produced by everyone, including DH and SL victories in M04 by 
Ara Papazian and medal performances by numerous Far West racers, including Sandy Hogan (W10), Jim 
Dugan (M10), Don Merritt (M10), Ingrid Braun (W05), Tim Stewart (M08), Pierre Jeangirard (M07), and 
Mike Braun (M06). Even strong performances don't necessarily produce podiums in competitive 
nationals fields, and everyone from Far West skiied well.

Complete event results are posted on ussamasters.org. Excellent race photos by Marshall Tate of 
bigskyphotos.com can be found on his web site, nicely organized in event galleries as well as by 
individual racer.

http://ussamasters.org/2013/nationals

Race photo galleries by racer:
http://crystalimages.photoreflect.com/store/thumbpage.aspx?e=8881442

Race photo galleries by event:
http://crystalimages.photoreflect.com/store/thumbpage.aspx?e=8881442