Sports briefs March 24: Banked slalom results, BHS track in Grand Junction

Dierdorff, Karlinski win banked slalom snowboard races in Snowmass

The 2019 Slash the Mass Banked Slalom was held Sunday at Snowmass Ski Area. Steamboat Springs snowboarder Mick Dierdorff, who competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics and recently won gold as an alpine snowboarder at the world championships in Utah, won the men’s open/pro division with a time of 2 minutes, 2.19 seconds. He held off Aspen’s Morris Hogan, a past winner of the race, who had a time of 2:02.51, a margin of only three-hundreths of a second. Boulder’s Jake Black was third in 2:03.74.

Taking the women’s pro/open title was Aspen’s Jordie Karlinski, herself a former pro who came within a run of making the 2014 Olympics. Her winning time of 2:09.20 was less than a second better than Laura Hadar, another local rider and past champion of the event. Breckenridge’s Darien Giedd was third in 2:22.08.

Complete results can be found here.

Basalt’s Bower wins mile, two-mile races in Grand Junction

The Basalt High School track and field team took a small contingent of athletes to the Central Warrior Invitational on Saturday in Grand Junction. BHS sophomore Sierra Bower continued her hot start to the season by winning both the girls mile- and two-mile races.

She won the 1,600-meter race in 5 minutes, 33.75 seconds, a solid 13 second ahead of second-place finisher Alexis Chelle of Palisade. Basalt senior Megan Maley was third in 5:51.85. Maley also finished third in the 800-meter run.

In the 3,200-meter race, Bower finished in 11:29.69, almost 50 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Tristian Spence of Grand Junction Central.

Other notable finishes for Basalt included Gabrielle DeWind taking fourth in discus, plus Samantha Andrade fifth in both 200- and 400-meter dash, and eighth in the 100-meter hurdles.

Rulbe Alvarado led the Basalt boys by taking fifth in the 200-meter dash and sixth in the 300-meter hurdles. Brady Lemke was fifth in the triple jump.

Aspen’s Hamilton 26th in final race of World Cup cross-country ski season

The World Cup cross-country ski season concluded Sunday with the freestyle pursuit races at the finals in Quebec, Canada. Aspen native Simi Hamilton finished 26th in the men’s 15-kilometer race, which was second among Americans. Erik Bjornsen was 20th.

Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo won the race, making him a perfect 3-for-3 in races at World Cup finals. It allowed him to edge out Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov for the overall season globe. Klaebo won the sprint globe and Bolshunov the distance globe for the season.

Hamilton finished the year 37th in the overall standings, 52nd in distance and 17th in sprint, his specialty.

Sweden’s Nina Nilsson won the women’s 10k pursuit race on Sunday to all finish a perfect 3-for-3 at finals. Americans Sade Bjornsen (11th) and Jessica Diggins (14th) just missed the top 10. Basalt’s Hailey Swirbul, a U.S. Ski Team rookie, got her third World Cup start of the weekend, taking 41st.

Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Ostberg clinched the overall globe for the season. Nilsson was the season-long sprint champion and Norway’s Therese Johaug the distance champion.

O’Brien, Winters take titles at US Alpine Championships

WATERVILLE VALLEY, N.H. (AP) — Luke Winters and Nina O’Brien won slalom titles at the 2019 U.S. Alpine Championship on Sunday at Waterville Valley Resort.

It was O’Brien’s fourth consecutive win at the championships. The 21-year old took first in Alpine combined and super-G at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine earlier in the week before the event moved across the border Saturday, when O’Brien then won the parallel slalom. It was the first time the event appeared in the national championship program.

Winters, who also won alpine combined at Sugarloaf, took the slalom with a two-run time of 1:44.07. Garret Driller, who won Saturday’s parallel slalom, finished second and Sandy Vietze third in 1:44.99, three hundredths of a second behind Driller.

O’Brien cruised to her seventh career U.S. title in 1:55.25, 2.1 seconds faster than second-place Paula Moltzan. Patricia Mangan took third in 1:57.44.

The championships close with Tuesday’s giant slalom, an event O’Brien won in 2015 at Sugarloaf.

acolbert@aspentimes.com

via:: The Aspen Times