Team captain junior Luca Procida and freshman Colin Usrey were the only two competitors to participate in the final league race.
Despite some patches of “sketchy” snow, junior Luca Procida placed second in the Central Division I league at the ski and snowboard team’s last league race on Feb. 2 at the Auburn Ski Club.
(Junior Nate Jakobs and sophomore Bri Davies didn’t attend the meet because they didn’t want to miss school; senior Nina Dym said she didn’t want to race slalom. Sophomore snowboarder Sandor Pelle didn’t participate because he attended the memorial service for Barbara Johnson, former assistant to the head of middle school.)
In his second race, Procida finished his runs in 40.25 and 41.52 seconds, placing second of 24. Procida also finished second in his first race; however, times were unavailable.
Although he said maintaining his energy was challenging, Procida had steady times throughout his four runs. Coach Jason Kreps said he was proud of both Procida and freshman Colin Usrey for their consistency.
Usrey placed 18th in his first race. In his second race, he finished 15th of 24 with times of 59.35 seconds and 1 minute and 1.37 seconds.
“There was a (cross) rut in the middle of the course, and I hit it at the wrong place, so I had to hike back up,” Usrey said. “If I had been more aggressive, I wouldn’t have hit it. And from (hitting) it I got air, which you don’t want.”
In order to improve on his aggressiveness and turns, Usrey said that he will probably train with his Northstar California team next year.
The team will lose Pelle when he moves to Arizona on Feb. 16.
The team’s next meet is the California Nevada Interscholastic Ski and Snowboard Federation State Championships at Mammoth Mountain on Monday through Thursday, March 5-8.
—By Larkin Barnard-Bahn
