Three Outlaws in ski championships

Three Outlaws skiers — Evan Palmer, and Bela and George Chladek — have qualified for the Western States High School Regional Championships at Mammoth Mountain, California, next week.

They earned their slots in competition at the 2020 Alpine Ski Race State Championships at Mount Ashland on Thursday and Friday, March 5-6. The exciting event boasted the top four teams from every high school ski league in the state of Oregon competing for the state title. Race conditions were sunny and calm, and the course surfaces were hard and fast.

The three boys will travel with their coaches to that competition on Wednesday, March 11, and competition will be Friday and Saturday, March 13 and 14.

The varsity boys started state competition in the slalom event on Thursday, and due to the hard, fast course conditions almost half of the competitors crashed out on their first run. The Outlaws finished fourth overall for the day. The top three finishers for the Outlaws were George Chladek, Colton Seymour, and Bela Chladek on the first run. In the second run, Evan Palmer, George Chladek and Colton Seymour were the top finishers. Mitchell Griffin skied as a substitute and came in fifth for the day out of all the subs.

On Friday, the boys competed in the giant slalom event. The weather was much colder, and at times heavy fog caused visibility to be a bit difficult. Bela Chladek, Evan Palmer, and George Chladek were the top finishers in run one, and in run two Evan Palmer, Bela Chladek, and George Chladek were at the top. Corbin Fredland and Seymour logged great supporting runs and displaced racers from other teams further back in the order. Griffin logged the fourth-fastest time out of all the teams’ subs in the Giant Slalom event.

The Outlaws did an outstanding job, and after two days of racing finished third place overall.

Coach Gabe Chladek said, “Evan’s (Palmer) second slalom run was very fast and was our highest-scoring run of the event. George (Chladek) and Cole (Seymour) were very consistent through the entire competition and resulted in a solid team score.”

On the girls side, the Lady Outlaws finished 12th overall.

On Thursday, the Lady Outlaws competed in the giant slalom. The girls squad is fairly young, and Chladek told The Nugget it was an honor for them to just compete at the state championships. The girls team came in 16th in the giant slalom, and top finishers in the first run were Hollie Lewis, Sydney Wilkins and Skylar Wilkins. Hollie Lewis, Skylar Wilkins, and Piper Adelt were the top finishers in the second run. Tatum Cramer also skied for the Lady Outlaws and came in 84th overall. Annie Cohen skied as a substitute and came in fifth out of all the team subs.

The Lady Outlaws competed in the slalom on Friday. Hollie Lewis, Sydney Wilkins and Piper Adelt were the top finishers in run one and Skylar Wilkins, Sydney Wilkins, and Piper Adelt were the top finishers in the second run. Cramer also raced and logged two good supporting runs. Cohen skied as a substitute and crashed out.

Of the girls team, Chladek said, “The girls were all pushing themselves. Hollie crashed out on a run, but she was pushing herself as hard as she could, and I liked seeing her pushing the limits. Piper really stepped up and skied some of her best runs to date, and it showed with her being one of our top three finishers in three of the four runs.

Chladek said, “The experience of being at Mount Ashland for the state championships was rewarding and fun. We got some great training and competition in on some new terrain, and it was very exciting for the Outlaws to be in the state championships. The spice on the dish was definitely having the varsity boys team on the podium for taking third overall at such a big competition! Four of the boys on that team are seniors and have been working at getting on the podium for a long time. The girls team now have seen the road map to the top spot and will be looking very strong in the future.”