Winter Park hosted the final two days of Youth Ski League (YSL) racing for the season.  With more than 350 participants aged 14 and under taking part in the East Council YSL Finale Giant Slalom (GS) races on Saturday, 17th and Sunday, 18th March, Ski & Snowboard Club Vail took several first places as well as the overall team trophy.

On Saturday, March 17, the boys competed in two one-run GS races, and in the morning race, SSCV’s Nick Kirwood skied to a first place for the J6 boys with teammates Brooks Hauser in second, Nicholas Maffei in seventh, and Brendan Archer in eighth.

The J5 boys had SSCV’s Dominick Epifanio take first place, Bobby Bolyard, third, Robert Harnick, sixth, and Mackay Pattison place eighth.

For the J4 boys, Hayden Zopf placed first, Marcus Gore took fourth place, Bora Basyildiz placed sixth, Jeremy Naiman took ninth.  For the J3 boys, Matt Valent placed fifth.

In the afternoon race for the J6 boys, Brooks Hauser placed fifth and Cricket Byrne took tenth.

Kai McGuffin topped the podium with his first place for the J5 boys with Robert Harnick placing fifth, Bobby Bolyard in sixth, and Mackay Pattison taking eighth place.


Shane Cole took first for the J4 boys in the afternoon GS with Hayden Zopf placing third, Bora Basyildiz in taking fifth, and Marcus Gore in sixth.  Matt Valent placed fourth for the J3 boys in the second GS of the day.

Ray Jay Benoit, Ski and Snowboard Club Vail Coach said, “SSCV came to Winter Park on a mission,” said coach Ray Jay Benoit.  “They brought their very best efforts of the season to a great race venue.”

As the second day of racing got underway, the girls AM race saw SSCV’s J7 racer Phoebe Heaydon take first place with teammate Kaitlin Keane placing seventh for the J6 girls.

For the J5 girls, Katie Bervy, Kate Kirwood, Hailey Harsch and Yarmony Bellows place second, third, fourth, and fifth, respectively for SSCV.  Gigi Kelsey took first for the J4 girls while Mary Todd placed third for the J3 girls.

SSCV’s Phoebe Heaydon took another first place for the J7 girls in Sunday’s afternoon GS while Kaitlin Keane placed seventh and Nancy Brown took ninth place for the J6 girls.

With a slight change in the order for the J5 girls, Kate Kirwood topped the podium in first with Katie Bervy taking second, Yarmony Bellows in fifth, and Hailey Harsch taking seventh place.

Gigi Kelsey was on top of the podium again in her PM race for the J4 girls with Elsie Hauser in ninth.  Mary Todd placed fifth for the J3 girls in Sunday’s afternoon race.

“I enjoyed watching the level of skiing and the improvement shown throughout the season, culminating in the results over the weekend,“ coach Simon Marsh said.  “I was happy for all the individual results, and also for everyone who participated and skied their best which resulted in Ski and Snowboard Club Vail being awarded the Overall YSL Champions.”