Seven medals were won by Apex Ski Club (ASC) members in the under-14 B.C. Alpine provincials at Big White, March 17 to 19.
Heming Sola of Summerland captured two gold and a silver, Noa Rogers won two gold and Ana Large earned two silver medals. ASC coach Jorgen Anderson said it doesn’t get much better than how they performed on tough, icy conditions.
“That was one of the toughest U14 provincials we’ve had in the last 20 years,” said Anderson. “It was really steep. It was very intimidating and for those three kids to continue to do what they did, showed that they were well prepared.”
In giant slalom, Sola was fifth after his first run and moved up to second after making adjustments. Anderson said he won the second run by quite a bit. After completing the first run in one minute, 3.78 seconds. He clocked 59.93 seconds on the second run. His next opponent clocked 1:00.51. In the slalom on the second day, he clocked 1:30.74, while the second place finisher came in at 1:33.49. In his second GS, Sola clocked 1:52.31 beating out his opponent by .06 seconds.
Sola is the overall provincial champion.
“He was pretty on fire. He’s worked really hard this year,” said Anderson.
Rogers and Large took first and second on the podium in the first giant slalom. Rogers clocked 1:50.77, while Large came in at 1:53.25. They repeated the feat on the second day (Rogers clocked 55.16 and Large, 56.88) but they crashed in the slalom.
“She (Rogers) just laid it down. By far the fastest girl there,” said Anderson. “Same with Ana Large. She just skied amazing in both those GSs. Her and Noa were far and above.
“It’s amazing results for a small club. It shows that we have amazing training opportunities from Apex,” continued Anderson. “They are very supportive in everything we do.”
Other skiers having notable performances were Blanka Gerloczy, who finished 52nd among 60 on the first day of giant slalom and on the second day she placed 37th of 78 skiers. On the boys side, Jaras Grant was 32nd among 45 in the giant slalom, 28th out of 63 in slalom and 28th out of 70 in the final giant slalom. Quinten Pearson placed 36th in GS, 18th in slalom and 28th in the final GS.
Anderson was very happy with how Grant and Pearson performed. Grant is a rookie, who competed in his first provincial championship. It was the same for Gerloczy. Anderson said for them to finish where they did was very good. With Grant, Anderson said he now knows what that higher level of competition is like.
“It’s always hard to go up against the province,” he said.
Next for the club are the Western Canadian championships in Vernon in April, which will feature skiers from Alberta and Saskatchean, then they finish with the Whistler Cup. Apex skiers headed to Whistler are in under 16, Agatka Koczij, Isaac Athans, Tamatea Westby, Devin Blaser and Kristen Anderson. In under-14, Sola, Pearson, Grant, Rogers, Large and Gerloczy.
In other ASC club news, alumni Reece Howden of Chilliwack is headed to World Juniors.