Trojan boys are state ski champs

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Jan-Michael Stump

February 23, 2010

BY DENNIS CHASE The Record Eagle Tue Feb 23, 2010, 07:45 AM EST

HARBOR SPRINGS -- Call it the great motivator.

A year after a crash and burn in the Division 1 ski regional, the Traverse City Central boys came back this season determined to make amends.

And did they.

The Trojans capped an unbeaten season Monday with a convincing win in the state meet at Boyne Highlands.

Central finished with 64 points. Grand Blanc edged Traverse City West for second 144-148.

"We really messed up at regionals last year and didn't even make it to states," junior Clark Phelps said. "We were kicking ourselves afterwards. We definitely wanted to redeem ourselves this year. To have an undefeated season like this is really cool."

That sentiment was echoed by teammate Chris Carefoot, the lone senior in the lineup.

"The team did great," he said. "We just skied like we normally do. It was all good."

For Carefoot, it was his second state title. He was on the 2008 squad that won it all.

"It's a sentimental day with this being the last race of my high school career," he said. "It feels good to win, to go out with a bang. (Winning) never gets old."

The Trojans opened a 22-point lead after the morning's giant slalom run.

"We told them we didn't want to come out flat," Central coach Mike Waning said. "We wanted to set the standard high, take it to them (rest of the field) and let them chase us."

That's what happened, too.

In the giant slalom, Phelps placed second, Briggs Chapman seventh, Carefoot 10th and Micah Appel 12th.

The Trojans then put the hammer down in the afternoon slalom as Phelps took first (team scoring), Chapman eighth, Kalvis Hornburg ninth and Appel 10th.

"It was a great team effort by all six boys," Waning said. "Everyone skied very well, very strong."

That depth paid off.

"We're way deeper than other teams," Phelps said. "We use that to our advantage. It allows our top skiers to ski as fast as they can and if we mess up then we have skiers to back us up. But we all skied pretty solid today."

Phelps said the Trojans probably felt more pressure Monday than at any point during the season.

"When you've won them all, you feel like, 'We can't mess this up now,'" he said.

West was in position for a second-place finish but had some slips in the afternoon slalom.

"We had three falls, which put us in a difficult situation," Titans coach Ed Johnson said. "Two of them were DNFs (did not finish), which brought us down to four, so we had to count one that was a hiker."

Johnson thought the Titans could have been stronger in the giant slalom. West was third after that event.

"We didn't ski as well as we could have," he said. "It put us in a challenging spot going into the slalom. We knew if we skied well -- and we didn't have to ski out of our minds -- we could take second. But that's when we started having troubles."

Ryan Ness enjoyed a big day for the Titans. He was fourth (team scoring) in the giant slalom and fifth in the slalom. Lee Batcha was seventh, Matt Lowe 26th and Finley Clark 39th in the slalom. Joey Caraccio was 19th, Batcha 22nd and Andrew Northway 26th in the giant slalom.