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Show i Park City's Great Instructor's Race Park City 1 is number 1 Teams from Park City took first and third place in the Intermountain Division Great Instructors Race held Saturday and Sunday at the Park City Resort. The winning team, Park City 1 will represent the Intermountain Ski Instructors Instruct-ors of America (ISIA) at the national finals to be held here April 4 and 5. Thanks to a strong performance perform-ance in Sunday's giant slalom, the Park City 1 team vaulted past Jackson Hole 1, Snowbird 1 and Park City 2, the teams with the best totals after the slalom on Saturday. Park City HI, composed of Geoff Nielson, Dave Peets, Vince Majewski and Julie Spidell, will compete for the national-title against teams from the eight other divisions divis-ions in the country. Neilson also posted the second best individual total time in the two-day event behind Jackson's Brian Bow- iner strategy surprises North Rich but not for long ,. Strategy? What strategy-.' .( After, announcing that,b.e planned to use a spread offense of-fense against the North Rich Mustangs to lure them out of their zone defense, Miner Coach Bruce Reid threw the book away Friday night. Much to the surprise of Mustang Coach Alan Wam-sley, Wam-sley, the Miners came out running in the North Rich gym, trying to beat the Mustangs at their own game. And it almost worked. Thanks to the scoring touch of forward Dick Olsen, the underdog Miners kept within range of the heavily-favored heavily-favored Mustangs during the first half of Friday's game, trailing by only four points at the intermission. "The flow of the game in the first half dictated that we do that because we played so well offensively," Reid ex The American vs. the Aussie Winter Park, Colo. When the touring members of the World Pro Skiing circuit arrive here for the sixth annual $60,000 First of Denver Den-ver Cup, Feb. 6-8, a lot of the world's finest racers will have to be content watching from the wings, at least until the action begins. It seems certain that center stage for this, the sixth meet of the 1980-81 season, will be reserved for "the" Austrian and "the" America n on the tour. "The" Austrian is, of course, Andre Arnold, the 25-year-old from the Tyrolean Tyro-lean village of Solden, who has won an unprecedented three World Pro Skiing titles and seems destined to add a fourth to his collection. "The" American is Richie Woodworth, a 23-year-old racer from Peabody.Mass., who in his third year as a pro, has proven he can stay gate for gate with the best skiers in the world. He has demonstrated that through the first six meets (six giant slaloms and six slaloms) of the season at least. The depth of Wood-worth's Wood-worth's consistency and determination will begin to be measured now, with the First of Denver Cup, the first of six meets remaining on the schedule. miimm ii . .niiii.ijiu.iMp mi Frank Klliott flashes past dies. Nielson won the slalom on Saturday, edging Bowdles by .43 seconds, but finished second to Bowdles (by 1.04 seconds) in the giant slalom. Jackson's Ax Yewer was third in both events. The top teams from Jackson Jack-son Hole and Snowbird were hurt by disqualifications during dur-ing the giant slalom. When a skier was disqualified, he or she was awarded a time equivalent to the slowest time of the day. In the case of Jackson's Stan Nowakowski, that gave him a time 16 seconds slower in Sunday's second run than in the first run. Even with that handicap. handi-cap. Jackson 1 finished in second place in the final standings, only 1.8 seconds behind Park City's winning entry. In third place, about 4.5 seconds behind Jackson l, was the Park City 2 team composed of Janie Hooker, Frank Elliot, Mike Leibowitz plained later. We got good Sh)ts(wl.f;The stftouge.s aspect of' our game iiv the first half certainly was our offense." Olsen scored 18 of the Miners' V points in the first half. But then the Miner express ran out of steam. The Mustangs came out smoking in the third quarter, scoring 16 consecutive points to turn the game into a rout. "We played very poorly on defense (in the third period) and our shot selection was very poor," Reid said. The final score was 87-63. ' Senior Jeff Smith, who plays the post position for the Miners, found himself in early foul trouble and had to play very passively for the last half of the game. "Because of his foul trouble, he was never Arnold, whose talents were unappreciated as a young member of the Austrian National Team, comes to Winter Park with awesome credentials. The flawless Arnold has won five of 10 races this winter; has finished out of the top four on only one occasion; has won both the giant slalom and slalom in two consecutive meets and now has a career victory total of 33, only two short of the record 35, held by Henri Duvillard of France, now retired. Arnold comes to Winter Park and the First of Denver Cup with 280 WPS points. Woodworth and Hans Hinter-seer, Hinter-seer, 26, Kitzbuehel Austria, the one man the experts believed had a chance of beating Arnold this winter, are the only racers who have an authentic chence ; of catching the three-time champion, even though six meets, including this one, remain on the schedule. Woodworth is well within range of Arnold, trailing in the standings by 55 points with a 225 total. Hinterseer, a beautiful technician on skis who has suffered two consecutive con-secutive unproductive weekends week-ends by his standards, is 65 points off the pace with a 210 total. f Ii - W ! ' im-jjiiii J-! a gate during Sunday's and Craig Pearson. Hooker also finished in third place in the women's individual standings. Traditionally, the top three individual men and women also have qualified for the national finals. However, Peets, who helped to organize organ-ize last weekend's race, said the rules may be changed this year to limit the field to only the first-place finisher.. Peets said he might have had more information on the finals if a representative from Rossignol had been on hand for the race. Rossignol is one of the three sponsors of the Great Instructors races (along with Ski Racing magazine and the Professional Profes-sional Ski Instructors of America) and was expected to provide trophies and details on the finals. As it turned out, there were no details and no trophies. "We're going to get in touch with Rossignol and let them know we're upset they were allowed to play in the aggiiessive, style hti is ,mo.st comfortable with," Reid said. Dick Olsen was easily the Miners' leading scorer with 28 points. The only other Miner in double figures was Trent Leavitt with 12. The high scorer for North Rich was forward Craig Je.. who matched Olsen's totals: 18 points in the first half, 28 overall. Park City's chances of making the region playoffs are on the line this Friday as the Miners host the South Rich Trojans. The two teams are in contention for the fourth and final playoff spot. A win by the Miners would all but ensure them of that spot. When the teams met a month ago in Randolph. Park City won 53-46. However, the Trojans have While the standings may appear close, the migraine fits of depression return when the mathematics of it all are considered: Arnold comes to Winter Park averaging 28 points per race (56 per meet). The maximum maxi-mum a racer can earn in a WPS race is 35 (70 per a two-event meet). This past winter, Arnold averaged 20 points per race. Woodworth has averaged 22.5 points per race this winter. If Arnold were to suddenly drop to his 1979-80 average of 20 points per race, he would finish the season with 520 points. If Woodworth continues at his current 22.5 pace, he would finish the season with 495 points still sitting in second place. The dual-format WPS concept, con-cept, which requires racers who finish in the top four of a given event to make 10 runs through the parallel courses before a winner is determined, deter-mined, is a severe test of physical and mental strength. ; : Add an Andre Arnold, who is as consistent as a quasar launching blips of energy into the cosmos, to that concept and the test becomes something that would inspire reverence in the most doubting doubt-ing soul. In three and a half 1; ft ' ' giant slalom. not there," Peets said. Even without Rossignol. the two-day event ran very smoothly. "I think that Park City put on a first class operation," he said. "The hills were groomed, the courses were set, it went off on time..." The shortage of snow forced the Resort to schedule both slalom and giant slalom on Clementine instead of a longer run, such as the Ladies GS. "But the finals will be a different story," Peets said. The three Park City teams were chosen from an original field of about 50 instructors. For almost a month they were on the hill at 8 a.m. to train for the race. Peets is confident that the Park City team will do well in the finals. "I figure if we can beat Jackson, we can be right there at the top. Besides, it's always easier to race on your own hill." been impressive since then, taking North Riclvinto pyer-. lime before losing by two points, and giving South Summit a battle before losing by nine. . Reid pointed out that the Trojans could lose Friday and still make the playoffs, since they have four games remaining Hul he conceded that a loss to Park City would give the Miners the edge. South Rich plays a man-toman defense all over the court. The Miners handled that pressure well in Randolph. Ran-dolph. Reid indicated that the Miners must stop 6 .V center Joe Argyle. the Trojans biggest inside scoring threat. "We have to deny the ball to the big kid." he said. "We can't allow him to score." winters, Arnold has competed com-peted in 89 WPS races and has finished in the top four 62 times, giving him a .697 batting average. Awesome! For Woodworth and Hinterseer Hin-terseer then, the First of Denver Cup is a pivotal occasion in the winter of 1980-81. If Arnold is going to be denied a fourth WPS championship, the groundwork ground-work for that denial is going to have to be laid in Winter Park. If his precise cadence is not interrupted here, what occurs in the remaining five meets may be off little importance. After the $60,000 Avis Cup in Stowe, Vt., the last meet prior to The First of Denver Cup, where Woodworth gained his second victory of the season, he told a reporter, re-porter, "The difference among the very top skiers is all mental. At first, I had to learn that I had the ability to win. Now I have to dare to be the best." There seems to be no question that Woodworth is capable of "daring to be the best," but the question is whether or not he can successfully accept the challenge chal-lenge in Winter Park, which could be the most critical weekend of the winter for many of the touring pros. Come, treat yourself to an evening of pleasure. Rest your weary bones and tired muscles in one of our 5 private therapeutic pools. After a hard day on the slopes or for a special end to a hectic day, nothing feels better than a good soak. You'll leave feeling like a new person. IB 1L Luxury Soaking Salon NOW In the heart of Park City 1 700 Park Ave., Mt. Air Mall Adjacent to Jan's Mountain Outfitters 5 private rooms - Reservations suggested Hours 3:00 p.m. - 1 :00 a.m. daily 649-4056 ps r"v I I " w if i l W j if w 5 I 1 Jr t ii 8 r-W fVt I r 5 minutes from Park City FREE SHUTTLE 0 40 inches of packed powder 6 lifts open Ski School NASTAR Racing Night Skiing NASTAR Thurs.,Sat.,Sun. Branding Iron Restaurant Live Entertainment & Cocktail Hour o Oyster Bar tl - ? For Information & Shuttle Pick Up ; 649-5555 rv- Parkwest Resort P.O. Box 1598 Park City, Utah 84060 The Ne,apcr Thursday, February 5, 1981 Page 17 OPE N I 'll A I It rli 14- 1 |