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Whittell’s Barnwell outduels friend, ST’s Allen at alpine race

Whittell's Gunnar Barnwell speeds down the slopes at Alpine Meadows.
Provided / Harry Lefrak

The North Tahoe girls’ alpine team continued its stellar season Tuesday at Alpine Meadows, sweeping the podium during the day’s giant slalom event.

High winds made for difficult conditions for the skiers competing on the resort’s Kangaroo Run, but it made little difference to the Lady Lakers as the girls finished with 10 of the 15 fastest combined times to take a third straight team win.

North Tahoe’s Aliza Neu raced to her second win of the year at Alpine Meadows, posting the day’s two fastest runs for a combined time of 1 minute, 1.45 seconds. Teammate Maya Wong was second with a combined time of 1:02.77, followed by the Lakers’ Maddie Roberts in third with a combined time of 1:02.77.



Truckee’s Emma Spillman broke up the run of North Tahoe skiers with a combined time of 1:02.89 for fourth place. Teammate Monique Fellows was next with a combined time of 1:03.46.

North Tahoe’s Jillian Ferre (1:03.84) gave the Lady Lakers the overall team win with her sixth-place finish. Teammate Paige McGarry (1:04.03) was seventh, followed by the Lakers’ Eva Turk (1:04.14) in eighth.



Truckee skiers Whitney Wingard (1:04.26) and Jacqui Roth (1:04.52) rounded out the top-ten finishes. Skiers from Truckee and North Tahoe finished the morning with 21 of the 22 fastest combined times.

Brenna Ritchie was the fastest Incline skier in 14th place and her teammate Kaci Meyer was 24th.

Summer Furrer paced South Tahoe in 22nd while Annie Ferguson was 26th out of 51 competitors.

Whittell’s Barnwell wins boys’ race

The boys’ race came down to a mistake at the top of the course on the final run.

South Tahoe’s Luke Allen held nearly a half second lead going into the last run, but an error near the top of course opened the door for Whittell’s Gunnar Barnwell to take the individual win.

“There was a pretty big shelf on the snow up there and I just kind of booted out and went into the soft snow,” said Allen. “But it’s all good.”

Barnwell, who dropped onto the course just before Allen, threw down the fastest second run of the morning to capture the win with a combined time of 58.66.

“I was talking to (Allen) before the run, because we’re teammates outside of high school and he told me to fix some things,” said Barnwell. “I listened to him and it worked out well.”

Allen would finish in second with a combined time of 59.09.

From there, it would be all North Tahoe as the Lakers raced to the next five fastest combined times to take the team victory.

Max Kelly led the North Tahoe charge, finishing in third place with a combined time of 59.64. Guthrie Goss was fourth with a combined time of 1:00.22, followed by Oliver Fralick with a combined time of 1:01.13, Thomas Mercogliano with a combined time of 1:01.74, and Toby Gajar in seventh place with a combined time of 1:01.76.

Tyler Lamperti led Truckee with an eighth place, closing out his day with a combined time of 1:01.94. North Tahoe skiers Bodie Hudson (1:02.12) and Trent Carter (1:02.54) rounded out the top-ten finishes on the boys’ side.

Brent Wolf led Incline’s effort with by finishing 13th and was followed by teammates Niklas Pietzke in 15th and Otto Albrecht in 20th.

After Allen’s second place, other South Tahoe finishers included Cameron Grant in 14th, Mark Allen in 17th and Aaron Johnson in 18th out of 52 competitors.

High school skiers will get a break from competition next week. The season is scheduled to resume on Tuesday, Feb. 26 at Sierra-at-Tahoe with a round of slalom racing.

Tahoe Daily Tribune sports and recreation editor Bill Rozak contributed to this report.


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