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Local swim team finishes third out of 11 teams

By Coach Lindsay Barksdale

The Mammoth Lakes Swim Team is finishing up another successful summer season. The Sharks began practice at Whitmore Pool on May 22 and will finish up with a meet in Morgan Hill, Calif. over Labor Day weekend. The Sharks were led again this summer by coaches Lindsay Barksdale and Teryn Falkingham. The team had just over 90 swimmers ranging from 5-17 years old.

For kids on the Mammoth Mountain Ski and Snowboard Team, training doesn’t end when the snow melts. Dryland training continues all summer, and kids need the right equipment to meet their goals. That’s why Mammoth Mountain Community Foundation, Sierra Cycling Foundation and Footloose Sports got together to purchase 9 road bikes for team training. Geared up and ready to ride are coach Kevin Francis; team members Kevin Wolfe, Fleur Connolly and Katherine Brown; Footloose’s Matt Finnigan plus Community Foundation director Stacy Corless. (Photo: Susan Morning)

The Mammoth Middle School Nordic Teams coached by Robin Morning and Marie French finished their 2012 season strong with the boy’s team placing 3rd at the States Championship Nordic races on Feb. 18 at Auburn Ski Club.

The girl’s team took 4th in the league.

Three team athletes received medals at the post race awards ceremony. Cameron Small was awarded both a 12th place in the championship race and an 8th place in the individual overall CNISSF league standings for the season. Connor Kusumoto placed 15th in the States race and Trace Calvin ended the season in 15th  for individual in overall league standings.

Congratulations to all the Middle School athletes racing at the championship: Cameron Small (12), Connor Kusumoto (15), Trace Calvin (24), Calvin Forsythe (35), Martin Thompson (38), Jacob Mahler (40), Eddie Matthiessen (45), Malachi Schrager (47), Niven Tanzer (57), Fleur Connolly (38), Lindsey Pietsch-Roberts (42), Cary Walker (48).

By Karen Small

The Mammoth Middle School Nordic Team, coached by Robin Morning and Marie French, sent a total of 10 athletes to Kirkwood on Friday, Jan. 27 to compete in their first school league race of the season.

The Mammoth Middle School girls made a strong showing in their field of 61 racers over the 3km course on Kirkwood Meadows. Fleur Connolly skied with strength into 29th place and first year racer Meaghan Thompson, after dealing with two falls during the race, sped past several racers to finish 32nd.

In the boys Middle School 3km race, Cameron Small, after falling at the start and ending up near the back of the field of 68 racers, passed all but two skiers to finish in 3rd place. Trace Calvin skied strongly in the front of the pack during the whole race coming in 4th place, just over a second behind Cameron. It was fantastic to see two of Mammoth’s red and blue charging to the finish at the head of the pack! Connor Kusumoto, who was also caught up in a fall at the start, skillfully passed two-thirds of the racers to finish 23rd, while first year racer Calvin Forsythe showed his potential by placing 26th.

Martin Thompson made a strong showing in 41st place and Eddie Matthiessen sprinted into 48th place after experiencing a serious fall on the course. Both Quinn Contaldi (57th) and newcomer Jack Peckenpaugh (66th) skied the race with strong determination.

The Mammoth Nordic teams will host the league schools Friday, Feb. 3 at Tamarack XC Ski Center for the Mammoth Classic. High school starts at 11 a.m. and middle school at 12:30 p.m. The start and finish are in the teaching lanes near the YURT. Come out and cheer our team on —it will be a very exciting day!

Liam Bassler and the rest of the Mammoth Sharks went out and got the competition in Tahoe. (Photo courtesy Mammoth Sharks)

The Mammoth Lakes Swim Team, the Mammoth Sharks, were victorious at a meet in South Lake Tahoe July 22-24.

The team brought 47 swimmers to the meet and competed against more than 20 teams from all over California. Mammoth and Bishop were the only two summer seasonal teams competing against year-round swimmers. Mammoth came home as the meet winner with more than 600 points beating out teams from the San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Napa areas, as well as teams from Reno, Sparks, Minden/Gardnerville, and more.

Many Mammoth athletes swam personal best times and brought home Individual High Point awards. High Point awards are given to the athletes who get the overall best results in their age group.

Ava Lazar was 2nd and Sara Mueller was 1st in the 6 and under girls category.

Jake Westfall was 2nd and Quentin LeFrancois 1st in the 6 and under boys category.

Ryan Furness was 2nd in the 7-8 year old Boy category. Ryan’s sister, Katrionna Furness, was 1st out of 9-10 year old girls. And Sydney Knadler was 3rd in a tight race for the 15-16 year old girl Category.

The Sharks’ next meet is Aug. 5-7 in Minden for the High Country League Championships. You can watch the Sharks compete against Bishop Swim Team at Whitmore Pool Saturday, Aug. 13 in their final competition of the summer.

-Coach Lindsay Barksdale

By Donald Qualls

On March 17, three members of Mammoth’s 10 member track squad celebrated St. Paddy’s Day by traveling to Boron High School to participate in Boran’s Invitational Track meet. Eight high schools from the Desert Mountain League participated with more than 150 athletes showing up to represent their individual high schools. This was the first competition of the year for Mammoth’s young Husky squad.

Although small in number, the Husky athletes quickly became noticed and let the competition know they were there to make their hometown proud. Sophomore Toby Qualls and Freshman Trevor Meads started things off in the 1600 meter (one mile run).  Conditions were windy on the dirt track, making the course unfavorable for fast times but Qualls
raced out and made it look easy, winning the one mile race with a 4:59 time. No other runner was even close. Meads took home eighth place, finishing in top half, with a time of 6:13.

It was then Sophomore Sydney Knadlers turn to run the 1600 meter race in the female division. Knadlers is well known for being a great athlete, but she had never stepped onto a high school track, let alone run in a invitational. No one knew how she would react or run.
The advice from the side line was simple: stay back at the number five position for the first two laps around the track. After the second lap, if you feel bad, slow down. If you feel good, pick off one girl at a time for the next two laps. “We held our breath,” stated track coach Brian Pennington. Knadlers felt good, however, and picked off all four girls in front of her, passing the last one with only 200 yards to go. Knadler won the race in a time of 6:37. She then tried her hand at the 200 meter race and placed second.

Qualls finished the day by racing in the 3200 meter, or two mile, event. All coaches felt it was a three man race between Mammoth, Desert Christian, and Vasquez high school. Vasquez’s runner, a senior, is a state caliber runner, and very badly wanted to beat Qualls in this race. It turned into a two man race with Qualls and the Vasquez runner nearly lapping every other runner at least once. Qualls led the race from start to finish, but had to hold off the Vasquez runner’s determined bids to take over the lead. Each time, Qualls would hold the lead, but you could see the pain in both boys’ faces. The race came down to a sprint for the finish line with Qualls winning the race in a time of 10:33.

Mammoth entered the event with three runners and came away with four medals and a lot of respect. Mammoth’s next race will be in Bishop, on March 24, at 3 p.m.

Thursday’s Collaborative Planning Team meeting was the last scheduled one for 2010. The following are a few items from the agenda.

First up, a fox on the run story (the same one The Sheet and the LA Times reported on a few weeks ago but with a first hand take) … Humboldt-Toiyabe Forest District Ranger Mike Crawley said he and his crew made an interesting discovery while working on the snowmobile crossing point between the Pacific Crest Trail and Bridgeport Recreation Area: a rare sighting of a Sierra Nevada Red Fox … and not just one, either. Surveillance cameras used for documentation purposes appear to have captured images of what park officials think are as many as three of the foxes. Crawley said it’s not clear at this point what effect, if any, the foxes will have on the work on the crossing.

Meanwhile, the news could be better for Caltrans, which reported that it’s still running without a budget, thanks to the state, which is also still running without a budget. Caltrans reps said the governor has ordered no hiring, promotions or pay raises, though they are still hoping to be able to bring on a certain amount of seasonal staff for the winter. In the short term, however, the cleaning and maintenance contract for the agency’s rest areas ran out Thursday. With nothing coming in behind it due to the budget situation, Caltrans may soon be forced to close its rest areas. This comes on the heels of recently opening its Crestview rest area following a protracted repair and renovation period, only to find the agency may have to close it again sooner than expected.

On the brighter side, Caltrans completed roadwork going through the Manzanar Historic Site part of U.S. 395. If you notice a slight jog, that’s due to a correction to the road that originally, and accidentally, cut right across part of Manzanar’s land. Caltrans is in the process of rehabilitating both ends of the property and returning it to Manzanar for use as additional parking and frontage road space. Locally, in Mammoth Lakes, Caltrans canceled the overlay of town roads due to an asphalt mix issue. The roads will be restriped for the winter and overlaying will be rescheduled for 2011 when the weather clears.

At the Marine Corp’s Mountain Warfare Training Center in north Mono County, reports are that, while the U.S. still has 50,000 or so troops in Iraq, the Marines are all but entirely out. Rian Gamble of the MWTC said less than 100 Marines are still in the country, mostly training local police forces. Former MWTC Commander Colonel Cooling, who was recently assigned to logistics duty in Afghanistan, is at the Marine base in Quantico, Va., preparing to deploy.

No further large-scale operations are planned for the base until at least after November, while the Marines prepare the facility for the 2011 training schedule. That includes a likely visit by some Osprey … not the bird, the helicopter, which will make an appearance sometime in late spring or early summer to study, among other goals, the environmental impact of take-offs and landings, and how dust blow-back and other anomalies may affect nearby Hwy 108.

Yosemite National Park’s Chief Public Outreach Officer Donna Sisson said that summer visitation in the park was very brisk, up approximately 130,000 people. With roughly 1.3 million visitors between July and August alone, Yosemite is well on track to hit 4 million total visitors by the time it closes for the winter, Sisson said. That figure puts it just shy of the park record, which still stands at 4.2 million.

Finally, Mammoth Lakes Town Council member John Eastman wasn’t able to attend the meeting. It seems he does have a good reason, however; Eastman is reportedly swinging a hammer in Nepal as part of a Habitat For Humanities build there. Fellow Council member Jo Bacon ably filled in for him.

Nuthin’ Fancy took time out for MMS 6th Grade’s Flex Your Power Green Team project finale ceremony in the Village last Saturday. (Photo: Geisel)

Trent Wallentine won his age division at the USASA nationals at Copper Mountain April 3-10

Mammoth ski and snowboard teams shine following fundraiser

Driving a van full of teenagers to Colorado is no easy task, especially when you throw in sandstorms, snowstorms and too much Miley Cyrus. Nonetheless, Mammoth Head Snowboard Coach Ben Wisner and Head Freeride Coach Benny Ryerson report that Mammoth Mountain was once again well represented this year as MMSA’s athletes successfully completed a seven day trip to Copper Mountain for the 2010 USASA Nationals April 3-10.

Over 1,500 competitors competed in the invite-only series that consists of half-pipe, slopestyle, slalom, giant slalom and skier/boarder-cross. It’s a long road to Nationals; in order to qualify each competitor needs to complete the season with a first place ranking within their region for their respective discipline.

The snowboard team finished the week with 17 top ten finishes, with Trent Wallentine leading the pack with a first place in Overall Title for the 7-and-under category.  Wallentine placed first in giant slalom and boarder-cross, second in slalom, third in slopestyle and seventh in half-pipe. “ He’s a great kid, very modest,” said Wisner. “He’s kind of shy so he actually didn’t want to go up and get his medals on the podium.”

The Freeride ski team rounded out the week with 21 top ten finishes. Abigail Hansen placed first in half pipe, third in slopestyle and first in skier cross which resulted her getting a first place Overall Title for 10-12-year old division. Hansen isn’t new to Nationals. Last year she podiumed with three first place finishes.

The trip wasn’t all business. Both teams spent a day riding a foot of fresh powder at Copper as well as a full day at the renowned Woodward at Copper Mountain facility. “Woodward is great,” claimed Ryerson, “the fact that the kids have access to trampolines and foam pits equal a lot of progression. The facilities they have at Woodward are something Mammoth desperately needs.”

With that in mind,  MMSA recently concluded the third annual Mammoth Invitational, an event to expand Mammoth’s commitment to youth sports development with the idea of ultimately constructing a new state of the art training facility. The Mammoth Center for Excellence, as it’s called, will consist of lockers, a video room, a strength training room, vert ramps and head offices for the ski and snowboard teams. Director and Head Coach for the MMSA ski team as well as Vice President of the Mammoth Community Foundation, Mark Brownlie, told the Sheet, “We’re on track, it’s been a great fundraiser that’s gaining a lot of momentum.”

This year the Mammoth Invitational raised a healthy $333,000.  According to a press release from Daniel Hansen, MMSA’s Public Relations Manager, “The three-day event included ski racing of multiple disciplines, on-mountain activities, banquets, a silent and live auction, an awards ceremony and more … Taking home the top honors for the event was Team Andorra consisting of Ray Gallagher, Bud Cole, George Diltz, Garret Noonan and U.S. Ski Team Athlete Alice McKennis.

The 2010 Mammoth Invitational brought an elite level of athletes to Mammoth Mountain including former Olympians Stacey Cook, Daron Rahlves, Steven Nyman, Keely Kelleher, Erik Fisher, Errol Kerr, Kaylin Richardson, Alice McKennis, Leanne Smith, Trevor White and Greg Bretz. Also present were U.S. Ski Team Athlete Travis Ganong, freeskier Chris Benchetler and many others.

During the live auction, MMSA CEO Rusty Gregory reportedly stood atop a Hyde Lounge table and asked two other bidders to match his $3,000 bid for Chris Benchelter, resulting in a $9,000 three way bid for a day with the accomplished local skier.

This enthusiasm for the Invitational is testimony to MMSA’s commitment to youth sports. “We have arguably the best terrain parks and snow conditions in the world,” said Wisner. “We just need to improve the facilities.”