Seven junior skiers from the Flathead Valley Ski Education Foundation closed out a great season competing in Western U.S. regional championship races.

The racers all qualified for their respective championships during the regular season at competitions held at Red Lodge, Big Sky, Bridger Bowl, Missoula Snow Bowl and Whitefish Mountain Resort. The championship events are all age group specific and are sanctioned by the United States Ski Association.

Tyler Anderson from Whitefish and Colin Harper from Missoula traveled to Alpine Meadows, California, to compete against racers from throughout the Western U.S. in the USSA Western Regional U-14 Championships held March 17-19. Racing in Super G, Giant Slalom and Slalom, highlights included a fantastic third place podium for Harper in the Slalom and top 20 finishes for both boys in the Super G with Harper at 12th place and Anderson at 18th place.

Marina Kramer, Colter Upton, Burke Fox, Henry Spradlin and William Lewison traveled to Snowbird, Utah, to compete in the U14-U16 Tri-Divisional Championships on March 23–25. Skiers from Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and Alaska were vying for titles in Giant Slalom, Super G and Slalom.

In the U16 category, the group was led by Upton’s second place podium finish in the Super G and fifth place in the Giant Slalom.

William Lewison scored a solid 13th place in the Giant Slalom and 14th place in the Super G.

In the U14 group, Burke Fox placed 21st, 50th and 36th in the Giant Slalom, Super G and Slalom respectively, while Henry Spradlin finished 34th, 51st and 31st in those events. Marina Kramer skied to 39th place in the Ladies U14 Super G and 47th place in the U14 Giant Slalom.

With a successful 2016-17 season in the books, plans are already underway for 2017-18. The older “Academy Team” will begin physical testing in May to establish a benchmark for their summer-long dryland conditioning programs.

Many of the FVSEF ski team members will be traveling to Oregon in June for summer ski training at Mount Hood.