.The second race of The Kimberly Foundation's involvement for 1999 was held in association with PNSA and Stevens Pass Alpine Club March 12-14, 1999 at Stevens Pass Ski Area located in Stevens Pass, Washington.  The event was the championship for the top 8-12 year old boys and girls from the Pacific Northwest.

Sandwiched between two of the nicest weekends this winter, the BW Championships had to deal with all kinds of weather.  Light snow greeted the young competitors on Friday for the day of training.  The most complaints however came from the snow hurting the eyes of the kids during the team pictures.  Saturday brought a lot of fog, some snow, and maybe even a drop or two of rain.  Sunday the day started with a heavy blanket of fog and turned to sun by the end of the day.

The weekend's schedule included a day of training (and Team photos) on Friday, one giant slalom, and one slalom for kids from 22 different ski teams over Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday's races were GS for the 128 boys and slalom for the 107 girls.  The GS was held on the Showcase run and the slalom was held on the steep Lower I-5 run.  The events and venues switched for Sunday.

As mentioned above the girls raced slalom on Saturday.  Courtney Nova of SPAC won both runs of the race to win by five and a half seconds.  Natashia Scott of MRSC held off Courtney Saario for second.

In the boys GS, Riley MacGraw of MARA also won both runs, but the margin was a lot less than the girls slalom.  Riley edged eight year old Colby Granstrom of SPAC by 8 tenths of a second.  Austin Baruffi of TAS had two solid runs to finish third.

The kids switched events on Sunday and Parker Patterson of MSRT beat his teammate Clay Charles by 2.3 seconds to win the boys slalom.  Jacob Poore of CMAC finished third.

The girls GS was real close after the first run with at least six girls within one second of the lead.  Jilyne McDonald of CMAC separated herself from the pack with a strong second run to win by over two seconds.  Lauren Summers of TAS and Courtney Nova of SPAC finished second and third respectively.

The overall team combined award went to Steven Pass Alpine Club.  That home cooking must have worked.

The Kimberly Foundation is proud to continue it's scholarship program for this race.  Scholarships were awarded to the top three male and female competitors for the weekend.  The scholarship is based on the skier performance over weekend and will help defray some of the costs of going to a national competition.

Courtney Nova, SPAC, Jilyne McDonald, CMAC, and Natashia Scott, MRSC, first, second, and third respectively, won the scholarships for the girls.

Colby Granstrom, SPAC, Parker Patterson, MSRT, and Riley MacGraw, MARA, first, second, and third respectively, won the scholarships for the boys.

Congratulations Courtney, Jilyne, Natashia, Colby, Parker, and Riley for an outstanding weekend.

SPECIAL NOTE:
A lot goes into an event like this. Stevens Pass Alpine Club did a great job running the race.  Actually it was two different races run at the same time.   It was a lot of work, but well worth it I'm sure.   They set the standard for future championship races.   It was fun being associated with this event.

Race Photos

Complete Results