A contingent of U12’s travelled to Big White Ski Resort to compete in the Big White Ski Club U12 Invitational this past weekend (March 30 and 31). The field was comprised of 29 girls and 18 boys including 10 girls and 9 boys from WMSC. They competed against racers from different zones including Big White, Apex and Vernon.

The team was steered by a strong group of coaches – Mat, Alexi, Roman and Rob were leading the way making sure we had the best prepared kids on the mountain. The sunny skies buoyed everyone’s moods, bringing out the smiles and good vibes in the start area, and the kids were focused on their performances but cheering each other on.

Unfortunately snow conditions did not allow for the GS to be run, so four one-run slalom races took place: stubbie slalom, two paneled slalom, and a tall gate slalom.

Coach Mat Leduc said he saw “massive improvements” from these U12’s with tough competition from other clubs. There was a good variation of kids on the podium and several posting personal best results: “For some kids, if you watch video from their first days at U12 until now you’d never believe it’s the same kids. Massive leaps. The last few weeks of racing have increased the gains that some kids have made because they see how close they are…so they focus even harder.”

In Saturday morning girls stubbies, Thea Torn won gold, followed by Marlowe Cook in third and Brooke Bessie in 4th. On the boys side it was a podium sweep with Thomas Legg 1st, George Sarkis 2nd and Graydon Swanson 3rd, followed by Aiden Thornhill in 6th, Maxim Akbulatov 7th, Angus Brown 8th and Kingsley Parkhill 9th.

In the afternoon paneled slalom Cook took 1st for the girls, followed by Torn 2nd and Hannah Neeves 8th. For the boys it was another podium sweep with Legg in 1st, Swanson 2nd, Sarkis 3rd, Akbulatov 6th, Parkhill 7th, Thornhill 8th and Brown 9th.

On Sunday the second paneled slalom had a surprise snowfall, and more great results from WMSC. Torn won another gold for the girls, followed by Cook 2nd and Bessie 9th. On the boys side it was Akbulatov was 1st, Swanson 2nd, Sarkis 3rd, Parkhill 4th, Thornhill 5th, Seth Robert 7th and Brown 8th.

The sun was out again for the final tall gate slalom, and more top 10’s for the club: Cook also won another gold followed by Torn 3rd, Hannah Neeves 8th, Sophie Neeves 9th and Bessie 10th. For the boys it was Parkhill 1st, Sarkis 3rd, Swanson 4th, Akbulatov 5th, Robert 8th and Brown 10th.

On top of excellent results the team (And parents! And coaches!) had great fun including a birthday celebration for teammate Mitchell Stodt on Saturday afternoon at Happy Valley Lodge.

A fun road trip to end the U12 race season!