Freshman Colin Usrey, junior Nate Jakobs, team captain junior Luca Procida, sophomore Bri Davies, sophomore Sandor Pelle and coach Jason Kreps at the Northstar California meet on Jan. 19.
Navigating changing conditions, team captain junior Luca Procida earned first place at the Northstar California meet on Jan. 19.
After his first run of the Slalom course, Procida was in second.
“(But on the second run,) he skied (smoothly) and fast and made up the time to clinch first place for the race!” coach Jason Kreps said.
Procida finished the runs in 33.39 and 33.95 seconds, beating the runner-up by a total of 0.85 seconds, a pretty close finish, he said.
The SCDS ski team goes up the gondola on the way to one of the courses.
Both Procida and freshman Colin Usrey, who skied on Northstar’s U14 team, are familiar with the terrain.
Placing 11th of 27 racers, Usrey completed the races in 44.31 and 50.91 seconds.
Usrey said that he was proud of his finish since it was his first day skiing this season and he was getting used to new skis.
Despite equipment problems, junior Nate Jakobs finished 14th with times of 55.07 and 50.68 on his first Slalom course.
Jakobs tried to rent Slalom skis, but since they were out of stock, he had to use his All-Mountain skis, which are too long and wide for Slalom courses. He also didn’t have guards or pole guards.
Changing snow conditions added to the course’s difficulty, Jakobs and Procida said.
“In the first run, (the snow) was soft from the recent storm,” Procida said. “But by the second run, all of the soft snow was scraped off, and it was really firm.”
In fact, because of icy conditions, the scheduled second race was cancelled.
Sophomores Bri Davies and Sandor Pelle, who are new to the team, tagged along to see what the race was like.
—By Larkin Barnard-Bahn
