Ridge Ski Team Posted Good Showings at the Hidden Valley State Finals

The Hidden Valley Club located in Vernon hosted the State Team Slalom Finals on Saturday, February 26, 2011. Numerous high school teams from around North Jersey participated, including Ridge High School's ski racing team, along with teams from The Pingry School in the township and Bernards High School in Bernardsville.

By the end of the daylong event, Ridge finished in third place overall in the boys division among 10 schools with a participating team. Ridge finished in fourth place overall among eight schools in the girls division.

The Pingry School finished eighth in the boys division and seventh in the girls division. Bernards High School finished 10th in the boys division.

Ridge High School and the other participants fielded a team of young men and women to go against area school rivals in the slalom and grand slalom races. Each racer had to complete two races at the event. The times of bothe races were tallied at the end of the day and determined the participant and schools overall placing. 

There were several crashes during the finals including one involving Ridge's Kelly Quane, who had to be helped off the course. Ridge athletes performed respectably against their counterparts. This was an accumalation of an entire season of racing where skiers did their best to finish the season strong.

Don Bosco Prep took first place in the boys division. Wayne Hills High School took top honors in the girls division.For a complete list of race times results and placings go to http://www.hsskireg.org/0/RaceResults.aspx

The Ridge boys won overall third with a combined time of 7:48.986. The Pingry School's combined time was 9:04.61. Bernards High School's combined time was 10:11.83.

The Ridge girls placed fourth with a combined time of 9:14.23. The Pingry School girls placed seventh with a combined time of 11:59:01.

Some individual times and rankings for Ridge, were, in the slalom race: Daniele Colbertaldo 4th, Alex Thompson 13th, Thomas McWilliams 18th, Connor McCoy 26th

Giant slalom: Daniele Colbertaldo 8th, Alex Thompson 15th, Connor McGeough 23rd, TommyTaylor 24th, Thomas McWilliams 28th, and Connor McCoy 56th.

Individual racers and rankings for the Ridge girls, were in the slalom race: Carole Spake, 10th, Kate Bondy 16th, Sandy Halbing 18th, Caroline Graff, 22nd and Jennifer Nelb ,29th

Giant Slalom: Carole Spake, 9th, Kelly Quane,16th, Kate Bondy, 18th, Sandy Halbing, 22nd, Gina Taylor, 25th, Caroline Graff, 26th. Three varsity boys (Colbertaldo, Thompson, McGeough)  and Spake and Bondy for the varsity girls qualified for Race of Champions. Carole Spake ended up qualifying for Eastern Regional High School Finals in Cannon, N.H., scheduled for next weekend.
The Ridge ski racing team team is 34 student racers who train at Hidden Valley and at Camelback in Pennsylvania.

Bernards Ben Neff finished 19th in the men's division. Alex Kaisand, for Pingry, finished 17th for the boys, and Madeleine Higgins finished seventh for the girls for Pingry.

- with Linda Sadlouskos