Scotch College

Skiers make the most of a poor ski season

Despite the poor snow conditions in the 2006 ski season, Scotch skiers could hold their heads high, bringing home a host of individual and team honours.

Poor snow meant that the Mount Hotham and Falls Creek camps had to be cancelled, but the Mount Buller beginners’ camp went ahead. Participants enjoyed excellent coaching and made significant progress.

Led by Captain Ben Bailey and Vice-Captain Alex Scott, the School fielded a strong Victorian Interschools Snowsports Championships team, consisting of 46 boys from the senior school and 46 boys from the junior school.

With the poor snow, the cross-country event was run as a sprint. Despite very little training, Scotch entered 10 students and qualified two individuals and a team for the nationals. In the downhill component of the Interschools, skiers keenly contested all events in all divisions.

Snowboarding numbers were down on previous years, partly due to rule changes imposed by the School Snowsports Development Foundation and partly caused by the poor conditions. Competitors were limited to three downhill events, which meant those skilled on both the board and skis had to decide which events to enter, rather than competing in all events.

Scotch claimed team and individual medals, with outstanding individual performances from Chris Ling, Matt Segal, Davis Yu, Jonny O’Brien and Will Payne. The Scotch team finished second overall for the third year running.

The national championships were held at Perisher Blue in NSW, and in challenging conditions the team once again combined tremendously, with three teams achieving podium positions in alpine events. The division 3 alpine team (Adam Brown, Bayles Abercrombie, Charlie Houghton and Alex Reilly) took out the gold.

The division 2 alpine team (Chris Ling, Simon Brown, Jonny O’Brien and Tom Browne) came second and the division 1 Skier Cross team (Davis Yu, Chris Ling and Simon Brown) took the gold. Individual medals were also awarded to Will Payne for division 3 snowboard (bronze), Adam Brown for division 3 alpine (bronze), Jonny O’Brien for division 2 snowboard (silver) and Davis Yu for division 1 alpine (silver) and division 1 skier cross (silver). The Scotch senior team finished third overall.

This success is the culmination of the significant teamwork of many people. Snowsports acknowledges the support of Koomerang Ski Club in providing accommodation for camps and competitions, the hard work of the parents’ Snowsports Club and the effort and enthusiasm of all staff who helped with Snowsports activities in 2006.

Following the Snowsports AGM in October, boys were presented with trophies based on their Victorian Interschool Championships results. The recipients were:

Alpine

Div 1	K2 Alpine Cup	Davis Yu
Div 2	D Yu Family Cup	Chris Ling
Div 3	PABC Cup	Adam Brown
Div 4	Tom & Chris Swan Cup	Elliot Watkins
Div 5	Sun-FM Mt Buller Cup	Andrew Fairley

Moguls

Div 1	Abercrombie Family Cup	Stuart George
Div 4	Matthew Segal Cup	Nick Mursell

Snowboard

Div 1

Ridingfold Medics Cup

Alex Scott

Cross Country

Div 1

The Classic Cup

Charles Blanch

Adam Lloyd
Teacher-in-Charge of Snowsports