HOOD RIVER — The defending state champion Hood River Valley girls ski team finished 1-3-4-5 in its final race of the regular season Feb. 20, completing a season six-race, first-place sweep.
Rowan McKenna won the competition — a slalom race at Mt. Hood Meadows — with a total time of 1 minute, 22.37 seconds. She had the fastest time in the second run (40.53 seconds) and the second fastest first run (41.84). Arlie Sparling, Zoe Mortensen and Rosina Hart were third through fifth for HRV. Each had at least one run where they were third or better, attesting to the team’s depth.
Hood River won all six of the girls races this Mt. Hood League season, finishing with 60 points. In the league’s individual standings, McKenna and Sparling were 1-2 in points in the combined slalom-giant slalom races. Mortenson was fourth, and Hart and Eliotte Walsh were eighth and ninth. Trout Lake’s Ella Shuman was fourth overall (and fourth in the giant slalom standings).
In slalom races, HRV skiers went two through seven behind Grant High’s Josephine Bourgault. It was McKenna, Sparling, Hart, Walsh, Wren Eaton, and Mortenson. Trout Lake’s Shuman was eighth.
In giant slalom, Sparling, McKenna, and Mortensen went 1-2-3 and Lucia Kunkler was ninth.
The HRV boys also won the regular season Mt. Hood League title, scoring 56 of 60 points (Cleveland of Portland was second with 42). The Eagle boys placed four skiers in the top 10 in the final race of the season at Meadows. Lars Welch was third in the combined runs, Harrison Kunkler was fourth, Jess Aubert was eighth, and Beckett Eaton ninth.
Four HRV skiers finished in the top 10 in combined season standings: Kunkler (third); Welch (fifth); Aubert (seventh); and Eaton (eighth). In slalom, Kunkler (third), Welch (fifth) and Aubert (eighth) were the Eagles who cracked the top 10 final standings; in giant slalom, it was Kunkler (third), Eaton (fifth), Aubert (seventh), and Welch (ninth).
Mt. Hood Meadows will be the site of the 2026 Oregon Alpine Ski Racing state championships, Thursday, March 5 and Friday, March 6.
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