Archive - 2011 - Sports Article
April 1st
By
Jonnel Janewicz-Leggette
Everyone wondered if the massive amounts of snow falling on Mammoth last week would jeopardize the 2011 Rockstar Energy Drink Roxy Chicken Jam.
Mammoth Mountain crews worked heroically on the halfpipe, but the greater challenge for the competitors seemed to be whether to compete or ride the rich pow.
The seventh annual Roxy Chicken Jam arrived at Mammoth Mountain amid snow, wind and a flurry of Facebook postings and Tweets.
March 25th
By
George Shirk - Times Senior Writer
Mammothâs Recreation Department has embarked on an ambitious summer schedule.
At least six new camps were announced on the town website last week, including two mountain bike camps, two skate camps and a âExperience a Bit Oâ Britain!â camp.
Um, er?
In the âChallenger British Sports Camps,â campers will learn from British coaches games like Tag Rugby, Cricket, Rounders, Kick Ball, British Bull Dogs and team relays and obstacle courses.
March 23rd
Local resident Tomas Rodriquez has won the National Masters half marathon championship, held in Melbourne, Florida, on Feb. 6, 2011.
He won the national title for his age group (55-59) with a time of 1 hour, 24 minutes, and eight seconds for the 13.2 mile course.
Rodriguez, who splits his time between Mammoth Lakes and Laguna Beach, came out of retirement two and a half years ago, after a 30-year break from distance running. Although very successful during his college running days, a national title eluded him. His highest NCAA finish was 11th.
March 18th
By
Wendilyn Grasseschi, Times Staff Writer
Despite having a tiny campground right on it, despite being only a mile from Mammoth, little Sherwin Creek Road just to the southeast of town has a wild and lovely feel that makes it a great cross-country ski destination for an afternoon, or even for a day-long adventure.
The gravel road is covered in snow right now, making it a perfect place for skiing Mammothâs spring snow.
March 15th
On a blue-sky Sunday in New York City Mammoth runners scored high points in the New York Half-Marathon, March 20.
Meb Keflezighi finished 15th overall and second in his age group.
Alistair Cragg finished sixth overall and second in his age group.
Ryan Hall finished 21st overall and eighth in his age group.
For complete results, go to http://www.nyrr.org/races/2011/nychalf/
March 11th
By
George Shirk, Mammoth Times Senior Writer
Try a trip down âThe Hoseâ
As if you didnât notice, spring skiing more or less opened this past week, with warm temperatures and longer hours of daylight.
For backcountry skiers, it is the best time of the year. The gullies and canyons are filled in with about as much snow as theyâre going to get, making the steeps a little less steep, with wonderful corn snow on the way shortly.
There are hundreds of great spots to ski in the spring around here.
But the Sherwins keep drawing us in.
Partly itâs because theyâre so darned accessible â right out our back door.
February 25th
By
Diane Eagle, Mammoth Times Editor
One look at the course map for the 2011 Mammoth Winter Biathlon and you know this is serious business.
It resembles an Olympic course.
It has a stadium built into the hill that looks out to the shooting lanes and across the lanes where competitors will pass three times during the course of the race.
Thus, spectators will be able to keep up on whoâs in the lead, how often the lead changes, who is shooting when and whoâs taking their penalty laps.
âBiathlon is changing and becoming much more spectator friendly,â said Race Director Mike Karch.
February 11th
By
George Shirk - Mammoth Times Senior Writer
There will be no cross-country track skiing this winter on the public trail system.
An effort by the townâs recreation department to make a compromise with Mammoth Nordicâs Brian Knox fell through on Tuesday, when Knox turned down flat a compromise proposal.
âYour proposal requiring our volunteer staff to train your staff to professionally operate and maintain Mammoth Nordicâs grooming equipment is a commitment, in the middle of this winter, I regrettably cannot make,â Knox wrote in a letter to the Recreation Commission.
Knox did not slam the door all the way on next winter, however
By
Wendilyn Grasseschi - Mammoth Times Staff Writer
Imagine skiing along a sparkling blue river, skies whispering softly over the white, blanketing snow.
Imagine the river, blue, silver, indigo, glimmering, a ribbon of color in the white land.
Imagine the quiet; perfect, joyous, broken only by the riffle of the river, the whoosh of the wings of a blue heron flashing far above.
The Owens River cuts a wild and wide path through upper Long Valley, flashing down to Crowley Lake from its birthplace at Big Springs, southeast of Lee Vining.
As Village Championship races go, last Tuesdayâs race seemed to be as normal as normal can be, aside from various off-the-wall costumes.
And then Jimmy Morning appeared.
One of Mammothâs iconic skiers and coaches, Morning was injured in a Super G crash two weeks earlier, earning him a hospital stay and a couple of weeks in bed.
Morning didnât race in Tuesdayâs dual Giant Slalom on Fascination, but his appearance made the beautiful racing conditions and bright sunshine even more radiant, and warmed up the Happy Hour party at Rafters.
February 4th
Melissa Margulies is going to the Super Bowl. Not to watch, but to play.
Sheâs a rookie star on the Los Angeles Temptation football team.
L.A. plays the Philadelphia Passion during half time. The teams are part of the Lingerie Football League.
Margulies, who grew up in Mammoth and ran track at MHS, as well as USC, always wanted to play pro baseball. Sheâs not far off, as both safety and running back for the Temptation.
Kaya Turski won the silver medal Thursday in slopestyle at the FIS freestyle skiing world championships in Utah.
Turski scored 41.70 points in the final as she navigated the obstacle course of rails, jumps and other features. Athletes are judged on their tricks in the terrain park.
âIâm very happy, I landed my run and I skied how I wanted to ski,â Turski, the X Games gold medallist, said in a news release.
By
George Shirk - Mammoth Times Senior Writer
Thereâs this thing about Patrolmenâs.
It a little gem of a black diamond groomer run that parallels Chair 2/Stump Alley Express, and itâs so tucked away that not many skiers find it, even on a crowded day.
The reason the cognoscenti like it so much is that they can make of it what they want. Ski it one way, and itâs more of an advanced intermediate than black.
Ski it another way and thereâs freestyle and tree skiing to be had.
But the real pull on Patrolmenâs is that a skier can generate some ungodly speed as the run bends its way onto a wide approach to Chair 2.
By
George Shirk - Mammoth Times Senior Writer
You canât exactly call them the Twin Towers, because theyâre hardly ever on the basketball court at the same time.
But Mammoth Huskies Alejandro and Francisco (âCiscoâ) Flores are most definitely identical twins, so much so that coach Jason Patterson has needed to devise a few tricks for telling them apart.
âThey wear different colored shoes,â Patterson said, âso thatâs how I can tell them apart most of the time.
âAnd they wear their hair slightly differently.â
A first time visitor to a Husky practice wouldnât know, though.
By
George Shirk - Mammoth Times Senior Writer
Itâs early in the game, but itâs likely that Mammoth will host a 10-day running camp this summer.
And if it goes ahead, it wonât be like any other running camp anywhere.
âI want it to be more than just going to a fat farm, said Visit Mammothâs John Urdi.
âThey should be coming here and enjoying the hiking we have, the cycling, maybe even fishing.
âMaybe on one of the days the runners would go into Yosemite and maybe do some running in the Valley.
âThereâs lots of possibilities.â
The tentative â very tentative â name for the camp is a âFit-cation,â he said.
