Saturday, April 3, 1999 -- Canaan Valley, Davis
The Local's Cup

[Coverage/Recap w/Pics] [Class Results] [Overall Results]
Pictures: [Set 1] [Set 2] [Set 3] [Set 4]

Walker Lutz fires into the day's fastest run

The slopes were sunny and the racing was fantastic as the alpine skiers, telemarkers and boarders all arrived at Timberline to race for the annual Local's Cup. What a great way to celebrate spring as competitors of all ages raced together in t-shirts and plenty of sunscreen. Adding to the fun was the dual slalom racing format with the winner decided on a total for two runs, one on each course.

Walker Lutz was surely having fun racing in the Men's 16-18 Alpine class. In his second run he recorded the fastest time on the course, 19.85 seconds. This bettered the previous fastest time, his own first run of 20.12, by over a quarter second.

Tim Worden looking for speed at the top of the course

The battle for second was much closer with Bobby Judy recording the second fastest time on his first run with a 20.34. Then, on the second run, the second fastest time was recorded by Mike Messenger in 20.58. But, the race consisted of two runs, and Judy's second run was only good enough for a 7th overall as he finished with a 41.26 combined time. Messenger, had a good first run and his fourth overall time gave him a nice combined score of 41.09. But that was only good enough for 3rd. Taking the 3rd and 5th best times in his two runs, Tim Worden combined his times for a total of 41.04. That gave him second overall by the slim margin of 5 one-hundredth's of a second.

Mike "Swifty" Messenger gets in one more run over Canaan Valley

But let's not take anything away from Mike "Swifty" Messenger. He jumped on his snowboard to compete between his alpine runs. He jumped pretty quick, too, as he completed two runs in 55.90 and received first place honors. The fastest female snowboarder was Sue Haywood with a combined time of 60.07.

The fastest of all the women was the winners in the alpine competition. Marti Jefferson was able to hold a slim two one-hundredth's of a second lead based on the first run time of 20.44. But Andrea Dearborn used a strong second run to take first, 11th overall, with a combined time of 44.20. Jefferson held on to second, 12th overall, with a time of 44.95 and followed that up with the John Lutz Top 100 Award in recognition of her selection by Ski Magazine as one of the top 100 ski instructors in the USA.

Charlie Waters joined a host of telemark skiers for the Local's Cup

The women continued to race well as the telemark skiers took to the courses. Charlie Waters had the fastest women's time of 29.26 for a single run. However, her combined time of 58.77 was only good enough for second as Nanette Seligman recorded a 58.50 to capture first.

The overall fastest tele skier was perennial favorite Darell Hensley who clocked 46.52 for his two runs. This was also good enough for the fastest time for a non-alpine competitor with a 15th overall finish.

The multiple talents of Chip Chase and Nanette Seligman earned them the Men's and Women's combined championship, respectively, for the best performance in all three disciplines. The all around good nature of Nancy Mamarella earned her the 1999 Ray Burnham Award for sportsmanship for her work at the Timberline ski school.

The spring snow is now practically a memory and we thank all the great sponsors for helping make the Local's Cup such a great success. It helps to have plenty of great weather and wonderful people, and you know they'll all be back next winter. We'll see you there!