State skiing: Platte Canyon makes history with two individual titles
LEADVILLE — Platte Canyon had never won an individual skiing title in the 53-year history of its program.
Now, the Huskies have two.
Luke Bailey and Alex Cregan each won the Giant Slalom events during the state skiing championships at Ski Cooper on Thursday. They are the first-ever individual champions from Platte Canyon. The school had never placed an individual higher than third.
Bailey won the boys event with a two-run total of 2:09:09. Vail Mountain’s Michael Resnick was second (2:10.02), and Evergreen’s Hayden Holtrop was third (2:10.97). Bailey had the top time in each run, improving his first-run time from 1:05.13 to 1:03.96 in his second.
Bailey finished seventh last season in the GS during the state championships.
Evergreen led the team score in the alpine event, finishing with 163 points. Aspen was second with 162, and Battle Mountain (151) was third.
Cregan captured the girls event by finishing her two runs in 2:15.44. Aspen’s Devan McSwain was second (2:15.90), and her teammate Levyn Thomas was third in 2:16.11.
Cregan had never finished higher than fifth this season in the GS, and was 12th at state last season.
Aspen had the most team points from the Giant Slalom with 167, Evergreen had 141, and Durango was third with 137.
In the Nordic side of things on Thursday morning, Vail Mountain’s Cameron Wolfe captured the Nordic Classic title, winning the event in 16:48. Everett Olson of Aspen was second in 16:56, and his teammate Jacob Barsness (17:25) finished third.
It was Wolfe’s first state title. He finished second in the Classic last season, and was third in the Skate. He also placed third in the Classic in 2016. This season’s Nordic Skate race is on Friday afternoon.
Olson and Barsness paced Aspen as the Skiers jumped out to the lead in the team race. Combined with an 11th-place finish from Noah Wheeless, Aspen finished with an event-best 167 points. Summit (162) was second as a team, paced by Peter Haynes’ fourth-place finish.
Aspen’s Chelsea Moore won the girls Classic event, finishing in 19:23. Kate Oldham of Colorado Rocky Mountain placed second (19:45), and Noelle Resignolo of Summit (20:26) was third.
Moore had placed third in last year’s Classic, and was fourth in the Skate. In 2016, she was 12th in the Classic.
Aspen and Vail Mountain tied for the lead in the Classic as a team, both earning 163 points. Emma and Molly Blaksee finished fifth and sixth for Vail Mountain, while Aspen also had Lizzy Barsness place eighth.
In terms of the overall team race, Aspen heads both the boys and the girls events.
The Skiers are on top of the boys event with 329 points. Battle Mountain sits in second with 296. Vail Mountain, the defending champion, is third (295), Steamboat Springs (284) is fourth, and Middle Park (281) is fifth.
Aspen also leads the girls event, totaling 330 points after Thursday. Battle Mountain (280) is second, Summit (267) is third, Lake County (265) is fourth, and Vail Mountain is fifth (252).
The state championships continue on Friday with the slalom and skate. A full schedule is available here.
