Steamboat Springs — It wasn’t that they won once. It was that they had to win over and over again.

And it wasn’t that only one won, it was that so many did.

The Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club Nordic skiing team racked up a slew of wins last weekend at an event in Aspen. The squad was at its strongest in a Saturday Classic skiing sprint race, in which athletes had to advance through the quarterfinals and semifinals to make the finals.

Four Steamboaters — Waverly Gebhardt at U16, Sadie Cotton at U20/18, Sumner Cotton at U14 and Grey Barbier at U12 — not only advanced through that bracket, they won each race along the way. They then won their final races, as well.

Those results were only the start of what was a big event for local skiers.

“We were just really impressed with the way the kids skied,” coach Brian Tate said. “It was one of our best outings that we can remember. It was quite good.”

The team also got strong results from the U20/18 men’s race the same day. It had four of the six skiers in the finals. Wyatt Gebhardt went on to place second, Evan Barbier third, Nick Sweeney fourth and Tyler Terranova sixth.

The team was fast again a day later in freestyle skiing mass start races.

Wavery Gebhardt won the U16 5-kilometer girls race by 30 seconds. Her brother, Wyatt Gebhardt, won the boys U20/18 15K race by 94 seconds. Tyler Terranova was third in that event.

Dasha Kusnetsova was second in the women’s U20/18 10K, and Wally Magill was third in the U14 3K, just edging out teammate Sumner Cotton. Grey Barbier was second in the U12 race.

The team competes at home during the weekend. Action starts at 10 a.m. Saturday at Howelsen Hill with sprint races.


To reach Joel Reichenberger, call 970-871-4253, email jreichenberger@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @JReich9