Sisters skiers come up a little short on the mountain

Sisters ski teams fight for championship bid.

In the absence of team anchor Liz Dale, the Sisters High School Alpine Girls performed well in their Saturday, January 14, races — but not to the level required to secure a State Championship berth.

With two of six races complete the Sisters Girls find themselves tied for second place with Summit High School with first or second place required to transfer to the Championship. Sisters’ Annie Hancock skied to a personal best third-place finish behind Summit’s Lauren Huestis and Bend High’s Karli Coggins. Jenna Sneva of Sisters finished sixth and Kelly Morton ninth but the result left the girls team in third place, almost three seconds behind Bend High School and 7.5 seconds behind the race winning Summit High School girls.

Rounding out the Sisters girls team were Kelsey Newport 11th, Nicole Veloso 18th, Bethany Bachman 24th, and Joelle Hamilton 25th.

“Race conditions were difficult today,” said Coach Todd Williver after the event. “We were shorthanded without Liz and the course was difficult. We skied well, but just didn’t have enough to handle the other teams today.”

Sisters Lucas Rietman also skied a personal best seventh-place finish for the boy’s team, but found no help from his teammates. Sisters’ Jake Thomas and Nick Anthony both disqualified on one of two runs, while Michael Cristiano finished in 25th and Dominick Deleone finished in 30th after falls on one of two runs.

The result kept the Sisters boys team in third place, a full minute behind the race winning Bend High Skiers and 18 seconds behind the Summit High Boys.

“The boys had a bad day,” said Williver. “We’re having trouble with consistency. One boy will really step up, but the others will come up short. I think we’ll get it together before the season is over, but it’s been a tough start to the year.”

Both boys and girls teams are competing with four other Central Oregon League teams for the top two places to be eligible to attend the State Championship in March at Mt. Hood’s Ski Bowl.