Davis High womens varsity ski loss disrupts winning streak
PHOTO: Davis High skiers faced icy slopes and a challenging course at Palisades on Jan. 31 (Max McMullen/Courtesy Photo)
By Mattias RowenBale,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–
The Davis High ski team saw its first loss of the season at Palisades Tahoe on Jan. 31, with women’s varsity coming second to Colfax.
“Unfortunately, the conditions were really icy and the snow was really hard … so that made the race course really, really fast and rough,” junior Athena Leckie said.
While the men’s teams and women’s JV team did well enough overall to secure first place in each of their divisions, the icy course made Monday’s race a challenge for most of the skiers.
“It was a very tricky course,” junior Lukas Voss said. “Unfortunately, for the women, we didn’t do as great as we might have wanted … we had a couple of crashes and disqualifications.”
Those crashes and disqualifications made all the difference as Colfax womens varsity pulled ahead and won by just three points.
“I think all of our top four varsity women (got disqualified) … either we all missed a gate or we lost a ski and that was really rough,” Leckie said.
Leckie, one of the top four varsity women, was no exception to this. After placing second overall on her first run, the icy course managed to get the best of her on her second.
“I start the run … the next thing I know I’m left without a ski … but what goes through my head is ‘I can keep going’ … (and then I’m) on the ground again, both skis are gone … I pick up my skis, I didn’t even want to put them on anymore … I’m just sliding down, bending my knees, boot skiing, when next thing I know ‘boom!’ Fully forward, somersaulted. Skis are gone, polls are gone,” Leckie said.
Despite the challenges of their last race, DHS skiers are still very much looking forward to the rest of their season. The team will race again on Feb. 11, this time at Boreal.
“We just really want snow because that’s affecting our races, but we still have a good time,” junior Anna Szymoniak said.
