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Show The "Rocket" is on target in Sun Valley downhills by Randy Hanskat "It was a very successful trip for us." That is the way Coach Jim Clifford of the Park City Ski Team described the trip to Sun Valley, Idaho for downhill competition Jan. 3-7. Two well-known local racers, Roxanne "Rocket" Toly and Tori Pillinger, had the best Park City finishes for the women and Rolfe Sandberg had three top-10 finishers for the men. Clifford said the five days in Sun Valley gave the Park City racers a good opportunity oppor-tunity to train and race on a challenging downhill course. He said the first part of the course was on a cat track, and required good waxing. But on the remainder the speeds were high, the turns technical. "The kids' turns got better every day," Clifford Clif-ford said Monday. The first two days, according accor-ding to Clifford, were periodically invaded by fog which crept up the course, requiring many delays. But the last three days were crystal clear, perfect conditions. con-ditions. Roxanne Toly, coming off a victory and a third-place finish in two FIS downhills last month in Montana, again dominated the competition compe-tition with two firsts and a third in the three races. In the first race held Jan. 6, Toly edged out Snowbird's Sondra Van Ert. Toly's time was 2:11.56, half a second faster than Van Ert's. In a second race held later,, the same day on the same" course, Toly dropped to third behind Carolynn Curl of Idaho Falls and Van Ert. But in the third race held the next day, Toly regained the top spot, and this time it wasn't close. Her time of 2:10.87 beat out Van Ert by almost two seconds. Tori Pillinger also tore up the course, said Clifford. Pillinger, a very good technical skier (slalom and giant slalom), is also a good downhiller, Clifford said. Her results at Sun Valley show that. In the first race Pillinger roared to a time of 2:13.32 to grab third place behind Toly and Van Ert. In the second race she took fourth, and in the third nabbed another third place. Nicki Koch, another Park City racer, had two seventh-place seventh-place finishes. For the men, Clifford said, Rolfe Sandberg was the definite Park City standout. Sandberg was eighth in the first race of Jan. 6, ninth in the second. Then on the following day he turned in his best run to take sixth behind winner Marc Eid of the University of Alaska. "We're looking for many more good results from him," Clifford said. Shawn Hazelrigg and Trevor Thompson of Park City also had a good trip. Hazelrigg grabbed two llths and Thompson two 12ths in the first two races. Then in the third they tied for ninth with a time of 2: 10.99. Two other Park City standouts, stand-outs, Jason Lawson and Scott Williams, didn't make the trip to Sun Valley in order or-der to train for the NorAm qualifiers which started Jan. 8 and run through Jan. 13. Those races are the most important of the season so far for the top Park City racers, as they need good results to qualify to race in the Western NorAms. Some of the giant slalom races will be held at Park City today and tomorrow on Ladies' GS. For the JII and JIII racers, their next action will be two giant slaloms at Snow King at Jackson Hole this weekend. |