When your school mascot is the Skiers, you’d better be decent at the sport.
Aspen has had no problems maintaining that congruence over the years, as the boys squad has captured two of the past three state championships while the girls have finished second twice and third in that span.
“That’s kind of my goal, to keep that going,” said Aspen coach Craig Carlson, who coaches both squads. “The Skiers have won 19 state championships, and we want to keep that tradition of excellence.”
The Skiers return senior James Britvar, who finished fifth in the state meet in the slalom last season, and emerging sophomore Kevin Hartman. The question mark concerns the nordic portion of the team, which graduated many contributors and must quickly retool.
“But most of my alpine team is back, so we hope to dominate that,” Carlson said. “And our girls liked the third-place finish last year, but that doesn’t mean they can’t do even better than that.”
Middle Park, from Granby, doesn’t have the mascot to illustrate its prowess in the snow — a Panther on skis isn’t easily imaginable — but the program is rising up the ranks. The Panthers won the girls state championship last season, and the boys finished second.
The girls are led by Rylee Burrows, who finished second in the state in giant slalom last year, and Taylor Grauer, who was fourth in the same event. In addition, Middle Park has returning all-state coach Lisa Mirabito.
Alpine skiers Jake Charland and Nick Stenicka return to lead the Middle Park boys.
