Bear Valley Race Team…Small but Mighty

Bear Valley’s Race Team is on a mission to prove you don’t need a big race team to be a great race team. While comparatively small in numbers but large in performance, this season’s team took home the coveted Rasmussen Cup by outscoring their Central Series competition.

In the U12 Ladies, Eleri Colon finished 1^st in 7 out of the 7 qualifying events, sweeping the competition. Also, making a clean sweep of the top podium positions, Nathaniel Ridosko place fist in 7 of 7 races in U12 Men.

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In U10 Ladies, Addi Gwin placed first in 6 of the 7 qualifying events. Hot on her heels was Candice Carroll placing 2^nd in 5 of the 7 events along with a first-place finish. Other noteworthy racers placing on the podium through the series included Rohan Naidu, Liam Colon, Kyle Ridosko and Hans Ramirez.

As the Central Series wrapped up, our racers were off to the Far West Championships at Mammoth (U12) and Squaw Valley (U10). Now competing against a much larger field of athletes, again our racers put in a strong showing.

In the U12 Ladies, Eleri scored a 14th in Super G, 9th in GS, 6th in Slalom. She also laid down two “fastest runs” on run two in Slalom and run one of Parallel GS. In U12 Men, Nathaniel took a 26^th in the Super G and 24^th in the Parallel.

At the U10 Championships, Addi Gwin took 24^th and Candice Carroll took 26^th in the Big G. In the GS, Candice took 24^th and Addi bobbled in the first run but stormed back in the second run to take 33^rd. In the SL, Addi and Candice were head to head taking 30^th and 31^st with a mere .06 second separating their times. The last day of the championships saw Candice rocketing to an 8^th place out of the 87 competitors in the parallel slalom.

In the U14 Men’s category, Ryan Ridosko was the top men’s competitor in the Central Series earning an invitation to the USSA Western Regional Championships. At this level, the competition kicks up a couple of notches but Ryan managed a top 30 in the SL and a 34^th in the GS.

Ryan along with Jakob Shawkey represented Bear Valley at the U14 Championships on March 31- April 2. Ryan’s best finish was 16^th in the SL and finished mid back in SG and GS. Jake had solid runs on all events and finished 46^th in SL out of field of over 80 competitors.

As the season comes to an end, kudos to Coach Nick Shawkey and Coach Ed Hanson for their dedication and inspiration to the BV Race Team athletes.

Eleri and Coach Nick