Race Results & Team Standings from Sixth Week of SMARL’s 2021 Season – Final Race of 2021: See List of Winning Teams and Individuals

By Harley Nefe

The 16th annual Sugar Mountain Adult Racing League season is officially in the books after last night wrapped up the sixth and final week of the 2021 fun and friendly competition.

Matt Leonard of Ski Country Sports, which co-sponsors the racing league along with Sugar Mountain Resort, said the snow and course conditions were great despite the miserable weather.

Even with the rain, Leonard said there was a good turnout with the number of participants, and he gave a shoutout to all of the racers for showing up for the entire season.

Leonard also added that Ski Country Sports is also appreciative of Sugar Mountain and the race operators who put in good effort to ensure all the races ran smoothly throughout the season.

“We’re just very appreciative of everybody at Sugar for putting the races on,” Leonard said. “Some of the race operators stood out there in the rain all night working on the course and timing. Hats off to them for being out there all six weeks.”

Usually after the final race, participants gather to attend a banquet with food where the winning teams and individuals for the season are announced. However, due to COVID-19 regulations and having to be done with everything by 9 p.m. to comply with the 10 p.m. curfew, SMARL was not able to have its annual celebration. Instead, participants were able to pick up their medals after the race, but there was no formal presentation.

The racing league and point system has been in the same format as in years past. Each team consists of six to eight people, and the top four fastest times down the slopes qualify toward each team’s point total. Each skier and snowboarder get two runs down the slope, and their fastest time is the one that is counted. Platinum is four points, gold is three, silver is two and bronze is one. Points are then added up after each night to determine a league champion at the conclusion of the racing season. 

This year’s first place teams are Team Sugar for the skiing division with 114 points and The Lodge for the snowboarding division with 88 points.

There are also individual awards, and those points are accumulated over the course of the six weeks. For example, the fastest racer gets 100 points, second place gets 80 and the amounts decrease so forth.

This year’s first place individuals are as follows: women ski is Erin Oliver, men ski is Andrew Jochl, women snowboard is Kristen Grey and men snowboard is Erich Schmidinger.

As the 2021 SMARL season has come to an end, Leonard said they are already looking forward to next year which might have some new adjustments to keep it exciting.

The different teams with their members, the rest of the results and the team and individual standings after the final week of racing can be found below.

 

FIRST PLACE TEAMS

Ski Team = Team Sugar  •  Snowboard Team = The Lodge

FIRST PLACE INDIVIDUALS

Ski Women = Erin Oliver  •  Ski Men = Andrew Jochl

Snowboard Women = Kristen Grey  •  Snowboard Men = Erich Schmidinger

 

Team Standings

Ski
Team Sugar 114
Ski Country A 112
Banner Eljk Cafe 85
Good Ole Boys 77

Snowboard
The Lodge  88
Edge of the Squirrel 87
Schooch Legs  73
Team Southeast 53
Ski Country D 39

Individual Standings

Ladies Ski Individual
Erin Oliver
Cailia Leonard
Beth Goode

Ladies Snowboard
Kristen Grey
Renner Murphy
Jordan Wolchesky

Men Skier
Andrew Jochl
Matt Leonard
Erich Schmidinger

Men Snowboard
Erich Schmidinger
Duncan Neilander
Adam Thompson

With help this year on Timing for the Race:  Rick Bowen, James and Mitakie Burts, Jenn Carson, David Miller, Will Marchant, Charlie O”Conner, Kip and Lee Blakley

Ski Club Coaches  Wes Aldridge, Ross Mcneil, Adam Thompson,  Sean McKee
And others Erich Schmidinger, Chris Leonard,  Matt Herdklotz

 

Sugar Mountain Race Team Members include: ANDREW JOCHL, ERICH SCHMIDINGER, WESLEY L ALDRIDGE, GUNTHER JOCHL, ROSS MCNEIL, ERIN M OLIVER and KIM JOCHL
Ski Country A Race Team members include: CHRIS LEONARD, MATT LEONARD, MARK RUSS, DAVID JOHNSON, CLINT HENDRICKS and LAWSON FIELDS.
Banner Elk Cafe Race Team Members include: LES BROUSSARD, CINDY BROUSSARD, VAN LECKA, BATH GOODE, MIKE MILLIGAN, BOBBY ROLAND, ELIZABETH BEATLE and DAVID HARRISON
The Lodge Race Team Members include: ALEX BROUSSARD, JP COGDILL, CHRIS AUSTIN, SEAN PEPIN, MATT HERDKLOTZ and ERICH SCHMIDINGER
Edge of the Squirrel Race Team Members include: JEFF JOHNSON, TIM OLLIS, SEAN MITCHELL, RENNER MURPHY, KRISTEN GREY, DUNCAN NIELANDER, ADAM ENGLERT and PATRICK BAGSBY
Scooch Legs Race Team Members include: JOHN HOLDER, ED WINEBARGER, ADAM THOMPSON, AARON MAAS, SHANE BRYANT, NICK SORENKA, TAJHVAN LITTLEJOHN and ALEX ETTINGER
Good Old Boys Race Team Members include: SEAN AUFFINGER, STEVE AUFFINGER, RALPH POLATTIE, STEPHEN ROBBINS and RON SCOTT
Team Southeast Race Team Members include: SEAN MCMULLEN, ALLEN DAWSON, ANDY MCDANIEL, BRET EDWARDS, SCOTT THOMAS, DONNIE HEFNER and CHAD BERRY