Morse Clocks 4th Fastest Time in Downhill Training
Canadians Trevor Philip and Broderick Thompson 1st and 2nd in training run; American Jared Goldberg 3rd
CARRABASSETT VALLEY, MAINE— After spending the first half of the day waiting out race delays due to stubbornly persistent winds atop Maine’s 2nd highest peak, Carrabassett Valley native Sam Morse pushed out of the start gate this afternoon and clocked the fourth fastest time in his downhill training run at the Toyota U.S. Alpine Championships.
Morse hit a top speed of 81.36 miles per hour, and his time of 1 minute, 12.46 seconds was the second fastest of the day among Americans, with only U.S. Ski Team veteran Jared Goldberg running faster at 1:12.41. Canadians Trevor Philip and Broderick Thompson, both members of Canada’s 2022 Olympic team, clocked the two fastest times of the day, 1:11.53 and 1:11.86, respectively.
On the women’s side American Jaqueline Wiles clocked the day’s fastest time at 1:15.46, with 2022 Olympic teammates Isabella Wright and Keely Cashman rounding out the top three with times of 1:15.86 and 1:16.23, respectively.
The winds were the dominant storyline of the day, with gust of 50 mph or more forcing officials to delay the start of training runs until the afternoon, and pushing the national championship races back a day to tomorrow.
Training runs give racers an opportunity to run the course at full speed before the race, and give those with the fastest training times an opportunity for a favorable start position tomorrow.
Morse, who grew up in Carrabassett Valley and attended Carrabassett Valley Academy (CVA), had something of a home-field advantage in his training run and was joined in today’s training by current CVA athletes, 18-year-old Abbygail Byers (Class of 2022), 16 year-old Althea Noye (class of 2023) s, and 17-year-old Josie Alexander (class of 2023), who finished with the 13th, 17th and 23rd fastest times, respectively.
Tomorrow’s national championship race will also feature five current CVA student athletes as forerunners: Adam Hamblet, Kaden Theriault, Caleb Stefanakos, Will Roy, and Charlie Koenig.
As the country’s most prestigious domestic alpine ski racing event, the US Alpine Championships give up-and-coming athletes looking to advance their position on the U.S. Ski Team a chance to face off against A-Team stars.
This year marks the eighth time that Sugarloaf has hosted the Championships. The resort previously hosted the events in 1996, 1997, 2006, 2008, and 2015.