MASTERS
check the scoreboard,” said Slabinski, who then
pointed out that the fastest man of the day, after
a jaw-dropping run of slalom, was actually Tim
Hill, the Class 5 wiz from PNSA.
March 21, Super G
Another cold night kept the snow fast and dry,
but the temperatures started climbing in the af-
ternoon under a cloudless sky. A few more turns
were added to the super G course, but it still
presented plenty of speed and challenge. The
C/Ds took to the course first with the most senior
racer of the championships, Class 13 (85-plus)
Duffy Dodge from St. Johnsbury, Vt., setting the
early pace. Another octogenarian Easterner, Al-
phonse Sevigny, upped the ante, which held until
Class 11 Rocky Mountain doctor Charlie Hauser
chopped off another six seconds.
This lead didn’t last long as Anna Droege, the
elegant and ageless Class 10 racer from Sun
Valley, nipped him by a second. Another veter-
an Sun Valley resident from the ranks of Class
10, Keith Thompson, dropped another second
off Droege’s time, which held up until Montana
Class 5 racer Lisa Densmore crossed the line
with a two-second advantage. Finally, local Class
3 racer Dana Alexandrescu put down a time that
would emphatically remain on top of the leader
board, and would only be topped by Pepi Neu-
bauer — and even then by only a few tenths.
“It was a good day for me,” said Alexandrescu,
a software developer with the U.S. Ski Team,
who came to the U.S. from Romania when she
was 17. “Because the hill is so flat, you have to
be clean all the way. One mistake and you’re
finished.” She ought to know, since she trains
several times a week on this hill under the lights
after work.
After moving a few gates onto a straighter line,
a thorough redressing of the course, and a last
minute flurry of fluoro overlays to the bases, the
A/Bs were ready. After USSA masters coordina-
tor Bill Skinner had taken the early lead and a
win in the 7s, the 6s kept lowering his time. Fi-
nally, it was Slabinski who put up the fastest time
among the 6s. Willy Scroggins still can’t bend
his knee much beyond 90 degrees after break-
ing his femur and multiple ribs last year in a car
accident, but he hung on to second as Bobby
Skinner collected his second bronze of the se-
ries.
The only racer to top Slabinski was Matt Sav-
age, a Class 1 racer from Mammoth Mountain.
Savage coaches on the weekends, but his “real”
job is with North Sails, where he is a materials
engineer. “It’s difficult to separate yourself from
the field on this hill,” said Savage. “Usually I look
for places to carry speed. Here I was seeking to
generate speed.” As for the subtleties of waxing,
Savage said, “I’m just a wax-your-skis kind of
guy, but I’m staying with the Swix rep, and he’s
taking good care of me.”
The Brower Bunch
Making a major contribution to the
size of the field at the nationals was the
four-strong Brower family. Dad (Mark,
of Brower Timing) races in Class 6,
while the boys, Daniel ( 29), Kevin ( 27),
and Mitchell ( 23) all race in Class 1.
Now that all the boys are living in the
Salt Lake City area, they get to a few
masters races during the season, and
after coordinating their schedules, they
took Park City by storm. Kevin, a back-country skier and filmmaker had the
best results with a pair of thirds in the
Class 1 slalom and GS, although Daniel had won the first run of slalom before blowing out in the second run. But
it’s not about the results for the family.
“It’s just a lot of fun skiing with my kids,”
said Mark. “It’s the greatest thing ever.”
March 22, A/B Slalom; C/D Giant Slalom
Another cold and clear night left the rapidly re-
ceding snow cover hard in the morning, as the
C/Ds remained on Payday for their GS, and
the A/Bs moved over to the lower portion of the
World Cup venue, CBs.
For the C/Ds the cold night even produced what
some of the Westerners called “ice,” but that did
not deter the usual suspects from dominating
their respective classes. Anna Droege exploited
her gliding skills to perfection in getting by best
Dennis Wilhelmsen, Rick Slabinski and Greg Sarkis
