Juneau Ski Club’s JoJo Griggs finished in the top-5 of her age class in four races over the weekend at the Alyeska Cup/Alaska State Championships at Alyeska Ski Resort.
Griggs, 15, along with teammate Sophia Caputo, 15, raced in two slalom races on Friday and two giant slalom races on Saturday at the Girdwood resort.
Both skiers are freshmen at Juneau-Douglas High School.
Griggs also cracked the top-5 in some of her races at the Coca-Cola Holiday Classic last month.
“All the races were really fun,” Griggs said by cellphone Tuesday. “I’ve gotten a little more training in than the last race though so it definitely felt smoother.”
In the first U16 slalom race on Friday, Griggs came in second place with a time of 1 minute, 54.03 seconds. Alyeska Ski Club’s Mary Grace Stahla came in first with a 1:51.08. Caputo was 10th overall in the Slalom I with a time of 2:11.37.
“It was more challenging than I’m used to so I just tried to have fun with the quick rhythm and hang on,” Griggs said of the course.
In the second giant slalom race the following day, Griggs finished in third behind ASC’s Piper Sage and Stahla. Caputo finished the giant slalom race in ninth.
“We haven’t trained (giant slalom) down in Juneau, we haven’t had enough terrain to even train speed and gates like that,” JSC coach Randy Bates said. “So for her to come up and lay one down up here is phenomenal, awesome, super good for her. The fact that she could essentially perform on demand like that is really a tell-tale sign of a quality kid like that.”
Griggs will race in the Super G on Thursday. If Griggs does well in those races, she will qualify for the Western Region Championship Series back at Alyeska Resort from March 22-25.
Only the top-5 U16 girl skiers from Alaska make the cut for regionals.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.
