March 11, 2008

Cooper Spur Race Team sent a team of 14 racers (seven fastest boys and seven fastest girls from this season) to the 2008 Buddy Werner Championships on March 1-2 at Stevens Pass, Wash., and came away with a fifth place overall finish on the boys side and a ninth on the girls side.

The Buddy Werner races are the Pacific Northwest Divisional Championships which are comprised of over 20 teams from all over Oregon, Washington, and Northern Idaho. Boys and girls ages 9-12 competed in giant slalom and slalom races.

CSRT Boys Seth Anderson, Austin Keillor, Hunter Kern, Montana Kurahara, Charlie Mallon, Zach Mikkelson, and Max Tobler raced their way to a fifth place team overall trophy.

“Our boys did exceptionally well and the coaches were pleased with both the performance of the J4’s (11-12 yr) athletes, as well as the younger J5 athletes (9-10 yr) stepping up to the high level of competition. Four of the seven boys were age 10 and were competing against mostly 12-year-olds, so to finish as high as we did is a huge accomplishment and we are excited about the future of the CSRT team,” CSRT coach Dan Stelma said.

The CSRT girls were led by strong results in both races from Raquel Bruggeman. The rest of the girls had strong starts, some plagued with crashes, and others gaining experience from the regional race competition.

CSRT girls Raquel Bruggeman, Ellie Truax, Hailey Kern, Allie Spadaro, Korey Cimock, Jennifer Mikkelson, and Hannah West raced their way to a ninth place overall finish. The girls were led by strong results in both races from Raquel Bruggeman. “Our girls have worked hard in training all season and gained valuable experience from this regional race competition” Stelma said.

Girls SL: Raquel Bruggeman 20th

Girls GS: Raquel Bruggeman 12th

Boys SL: 15th Charlie Mallon, Seth Anderson moved up 105 spots to finish 24th

Boys GS: 15th Max Tobler, 27th Charlie Mallon.

To qualify for the Buddy Werner race, racers had to compete in the 4-Way championships last month. In addition to CSRT Hanna West recieving the “Skimeister” award, CSRT results for that race included:

Angela Bruggeman 1/6/39/40

Hannah West 2/1/22/27

Beth Mixon 8/3/dns/37

Elle Truax 9/2/dnf/5

Kelli Clarke -/-/45/38

Aviva Hill -/-/48/dns

Casey Holzman -/-/51/48

Montana Kurahara 3/15/2/dnf

Hunter Kern 4/3/4/4

Kiefer Kreps 5/ 12/34/dns

Zach Mikkelson 7/ 9/7/7

Austin Keillor 9/ 6/3/3

William Lamer -/-/6/8

Chase Lariza -/-/68/dnf

Raquel Bruggeman 5/2/dnf/3

Jennifer Mikkelson 8/12 /54/41

Lucy McLean 9/11/34/43

Allie Spadaro -/-/15/29

Kory Cimock -/-/28/dns

Molly Clarke 7/-/27/44

Rachel Osmundson -/-/20/dns

Maggie Osmundson -/-/21/dns

Hailey Kern -/-/35/18

Charlie Mallon 6/ 11/7/8

Jackson Hukari 8/ 21/27/46

Seth Anderson 9/12/dsq/20

Jimmy Max Tobler 14/15/dsq/7

Michael Moxness -/-/dsq