ASPEN — While the Aspen girls Alpine team came in to day two of the Alpine state championship with a lead over the field, the boys had some work to do.
After some key did-not-finishes from some of their top skiers in the giant slalom on Thursday, Aspen’s boys were in third place behind Summit and Steamboat Springs at the start of Friday’s slalom, needing some success and some luck to make some noise.
All the Skiers did was crowd the podium — and miss an individual champion by quite literally the narrowest of margins.
“It was just a lot of hard work,” Aspen sophomore Matt McDermott said of the state championship. “We all ski a lot, we all put many years into this, since we were little kids.”
After not competing in Thursday’s giant slalom — a competition he finished second in in last year’s state championship — McDermott came out flying in Friday’s slalom. He handily won the first run, posting a time of 31.66 seconds, nearly 0.5 seconds quicker than second-place Seth Montgomery of Summit.
But Montgomery — who won Thursday’s giant slalom and both Alpine events in last year’s state championship — would not be denied the double-repeat, posting a second run of 31.02, besting McDermott’s 31.52.
In the combined scores, Montgomery took the gold with just 0.01 seconds to spare — 1:03.17 to 1:03.18.
McDermott once again settled for silver, but celebrated in the collective: Aspen placed four skiers in the top 10 and three on the podium. Sophomore Josh Stephen, following up on his own silver medal on Thursday, took bronze (1:05.27) and Thomas Robinson, after DNFing on Thursday, took fifth (1:06.81). Senior Jaden Schille placed 10th (1:08.63).
Further down the sheet, freshman Ronan Curran broke into the top 15 after his second run (1:11.63), junior Jimmy Stokes took 19th, junior Cody Lewis took 21st, sophomore Gavin Smith took 43rd and Viggo Morgan, at times a top-of-the-podium threat this season, DNFed his second run.
“The whole team has worked really hard all season and to bring it home in first place with the boys and the girls is really special at home,” Lewis said.
Steamboat Springs’ Sky Biglow also landed on the podium in fourth place (1:05.27). Steamboat also placed three skiers in the top 10: Biglow, freshman Pthalo Plomteux (eighth) and freshman Soren Shepherd (ninth).
In the end, Aspen ended up edging out the Sailors by just three points, 332 to 329, for the state title. Summit led after day one, and scored Montgomery’s win and sophomore Aaron Green’s sixth place in the top 10, but their next scorer, senior Tegan Snyder, finished 33rd.
For Aspen, it’s the school’s 12th skiing state championship and the first since 2021. It was the first boys Alpine state championship title handed out, after Nordic and Alpine were split into different championships this season.