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South Shore’s Norton, Idso wrap up Far West season for Diamond Peak

Tribune staff report
South Shore skier Payton Norton comes over a jump while skiing for Diamond Peak Ski Team during the Far West Speed Finals last weekend at Mammoth Mountain. Norton reached the podium with an overall third-place finish in three Super G races.
Courtesy Photo |

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. — In the last race of the 2014-15 Far West season, a pair of South Shore skiers delivered standout performances for the Diamond Peak Ski Team. Payton Norton and Madison Idso raced in the Far West Speed Finals at Mammoth Mountain last weekend, with Norton reaching the podium.

Far West’s last event was scheduled as a weeklong series that would include downhill and Super G races, but organizers cancelled the downhill races and moved the Super G races to Saturday and Sunday. This allowed athletes to stay in school and attract more participants.

The Super G course started on Hair Jump just below Cornice Bowl, then went down World Cup and Andy’s Double Gold — athletes encountered spring conditions with warm temperatures and very firm conditions. Norton and Idso were two of Diamond Peak’s eight athletes in the event.



“This time of year, athletes are hard to motivate, to go travel and race,” Diamond Peak U-16 coach Raquel Norton said. “They’ve been thinking about the beach for awhile now.”

At Mammoth Mountain, however, athletes were obviously motivated to win. That included the duo from Whittell High.



In the boys race, it came down to hundredths of a second to determine Saturday’s winner, with Norton and Mammoth’s Erik Eisen going back and forth vying for the title. In the first race Eisen won by .06 seconds before Norton took the second race and the win by .03 seconds. He rounded out the weekend by staying on the podium with a third-place finish.

On the girls side Idso had three top-10 finishes, placing a sixth, seventh and eighth to just miss out on the medals. Teammate Belle Johnson from Incline High won all three Super G races by nearly a second.

Last weekend’s event concluded the Far West race series for the 2014-15 season. Ski team athletes now look forward to participating in other school sports and ski camps over the summer.


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