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Show B-6 The Park Record Saturday, February 3, 2001 Specializing restoration of flfllZO'S furniture in home touch up REFIRISHINQ FURNITURE a n't o ue t and repair. NAVAJO 5 VI ? Vol Antique Specialist (801) 359-5238 Custom upholstery Pick up & delivery 801-359-5238 Free Estimates Sun Valley locals rule Idaho Masters Submitted by Rosemary Moschel Matters Ski Series In probably the largest, and certainly the toughest and deepest Intermountain Masters field ever. Sun Valley residents Pat Savaria (CI 4) and Abbi Fisher-Gould (CI 4) chalked up the needed combined com-bined scores from all three events to take the Skoch Cup at Sun Valley, Idaho. Local Sun Valley racers are coming out of the woodwork in this historic hot bed of alpine ski racing to try to qualify for the Charles Schwab Masters Nationals scheduled to be held in their own back yard, April 1-5. Nearly 150 racers competed in Saturday's giant slalom, with approximately 100 starters in both the Friday Super G and Sunday slaloms. To the delight of all the young local speed demons, the series commenced with a (to say the very least) lickety-split Super G. The course started down from the top of Grey Hawk (for the A6 guys, and a little ways down for the CD women and men) then jumped off the round about road straight down into Hemingway with some high speed, across the hill turns, and finally brought you back into the bottom of Grey Hawk for the finish. Saturday's GS seemed tame after this incredibly incred-ibly fast Super G event. Because of the large field of racers (all classes were well represented), repre-sented), two slalom courses were set on Sunday for the AB and CD groups to give all racers a quality course. Intermountain instituted a men's "super seed" two years ago, which has now become one of the main highlights of each GS and SL race. Many of the division's overall over-all champions were hard pressed this weekend to qualify for the top-10 seed in either the GS or slalom due to the very high caliber of local talent on the hill. Watching this seed run was like watching the second run of any world cup event - you just didn't want to move until all of them had come down. Our local star, Bill McGrath finished second both days to the Sarchelt kids - Jeff took overall in the GS with a handsome lead, while younger brother Robin came out on top in the slalom on Sunday (although McGrath rallied ral-lied in a dead heat with Robin in the second run each with a time of 38.68). The new men's Class 13 was debuted with Ski Hall of Famer John Woodward who just turned 85 years old this season. Look for John at Nationals, along with several sev-eral other guys from across the country who will be joining him. This series was also what you'd call a true "family affair," With many combinations of motherdaughter, brothersister, fatherson, mothersons, husbands and wives competitors? It was great to see the tradition spreading spread-ing down from parents to kids, and from husbands to wives and vice versa. And if the kids weren't old enough.to race - they foreran. Both Abbi Fisher-Gould's son and Nick Maricich's daughter jumped in to show us the way as skied down the slalom courses on CTtt 'ffiis& Sm 'wBmm VVP 'fc BB BPni I PfflBlWBK i I 1 IIhSKI I 8&UP ONE-DAY SERVICE 1 1 mm K BIH H m i I m mm RHB , Wm 1 Wm 487-562 ; Wmlm WHBmSSmSm ' mm 1111 . Bffii i mm m m .m mm W Sunday. Great support and enthusiasm was also demonstrated .by the great crew of the Sun Valley junior jun-ior coaches who provided course setting as well as participated in the races (helping to raise the bar a bit for the rest of us) including head coach Pat Savaria (Cup winner), win-ner), Adele Savaria, Karoline Droege and Ryan Dean as well as Tyler Ferris. Sun Valley Ski Club and the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation did a great job in hosting the event by getting a record number of racers down all the courses to beat the "dark" and giving us all a small sample of the show that will be staged in Sun Valley for the National Championships in April. It's not too late to get your entry in to your divisional chairperson! chair-person! The deadline is February 15. Masters racing resumes this weekend with the Western Regionals at Squaw Valley, Calif. Rahlves wins gold Continued from B-1 "I had a little problem in one section, sec-tion, lost my ski, got kicked around a bit, but that's super G. It was set really real-ly well, good rhythm top-to-bottom. I skied the top really well, with some good turns on the steep pitch. "I didnt really pay any attention to what anyone else did or what the conditions were for them," he told a press conference. "I was just going through my routine to ski my best performance, which has nothing to do with how anyone else is doing." There wasnt much doubt Tuesday about Rahlves pulliiig past the two Austrians - and all 10 of the skiers who went before him as a light snow fell over the first men's race of the championships. "You could hear the crowd deflating deflat-ing as Daron came down the hill," laughed Head Coach Bill Egan. "With each split, every intermediate time, they let out this huge sigh." Rahlves led from wire to wire, despite a mid-race mistake. "I kept fighting. I didn't panic," he said as he worked the finish area media. 'I kept putting' 'em down the hill... "We've trained hard," he told reporters lining the finish corral and he held tightly to his Atomic skis. "We have a great organization - the coaches, the service tech, th-support - and this is the reward for everything we've been doing." Rahlves said coming up while Tommy Moe, AJ Kitt (another GMVS product) and Kyle Rasmussen were racing was a great benefit to him. "I was just going out every day trying to beat them," he said. "Being a world champion has been a dream of mine. I always wanted to believe that I could be the best in the world on one day. To do it here in St. Anton it's the best thing I could have ever dreamed of. "The words 'world champion' send a ring through my ears," he explained. "This is the biggest place in the world for skiing. I compete better when there are more people out there. I'm totally stoked I could have done it here... "For Americans I think we just rise to the occasion for the big races. It's nothing special, just keeping it simple. We try to do what we do at every other race. We just do the right things at the right time. "Moe told me that in his Olympic downhill run that he was just thinking think-ing about speed. He wasnt thinking about winning, he was just thinking about skiing his best. You just need to work with the mountain, not fight it, keep it simple and go out there and have fun... "Its easy to get wrapped up about winning a race or how much money you will win. But if you keep it simple," sim-ple," Rahlves concluded, "it will come. Elsewhere, Casey Puckett was 31st (1:24.98) with Chad Fleischer and Bode Miller skiing out. "I think, frankly, they got a little caught-up in knowing Daron had the gokL.that he was first," Egan said. "Darons such a very special guy, always so gracious in defeat, so humble hum-ble when he does well. This is a popular pop-ular win." Racing resumes Friday with the womens combined, a one-day event with an abbreviated DH course and finishing at night with slalom. Saturday, the men race downhill and tne women tackle the DH Sunday. tt: POOR |