What an awesome day on the mountain for the Brindabella crew! The team absolutely brought the heat, charging hard enough to lock in a tied 5th place overall finish out of 10 clubs in the final championship standings. The team collectively chose in the morning for Amelia Grant to be the Team Captain for the day although not everyone was there when this was decided so I might have to come up with a better way of doing this next year.
I’ve summarized the main highlights below, but the full results are attached for your reading pleasure, along with some great pics from the day. Unfortunately, we didn’t get many photos of the skiers until after the race as we were flat out handing out bibs while the event was running. If anyone else has pictures they would like to share, please feel free to reply-all and send them around!
The Skiing Results
The Podiums & Top Finishes:
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Mia Hancock (Girls 11 & Under): Absolutely flew down the course, bagging a massive 2nd place finish with a total time of 43.34—missing out on the top spot by a mere fraction of a second!
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Georgie Grant (Girls 15-18): Put down an incredibly fast run to claim 4th place at 46.74.
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Herbert Hilton-Thorp (Boys 12-14): Drove through the gates for a fantastic 5th place finish at 46.90.
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Amelia Grant (Girls 15-18): Secured a stellar top-10 result, landing 8th place at 48.66.
The Team Event Standings:
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11 & Under Team (Mia Hancock, Iggy Utley, William Atkinson): Smashed their way into 4th place (Team Time: 187.36).
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15 to 18 Years Team (Georgie Grant, Amelia Grant, Emerald Hilton-Thorp): Ripped down the hill to secure 5th place overall (Team Time: 147.84).
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12 to 14 Years Team (Herbert Hilton-Thorp, Reuben Utley): Took out 8th place (Team Time: 99.84).
Full Roster Shoutouts:
Every single racer dug in deep to secure points for Brindabella:
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Iggy Utley: Clocked a great 62.58 for 10th place in the 11 & Under Boys.
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Reuben Utley: Locked in 13th place in the 12-14 Boys with a solid 52.94.
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Emerald Hilton-Thorp: Cruised into 12th place for the 15-18 Girls at 52.44.
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William Atkinson (81.44) and Fynn Atkinson (92.22): Powered through to finish 14th and 15th in a very competitive 11 & Under Boys division.
Championship Leaderboard:
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SASC – 18 pts
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BERGHUTTE – 13 pts
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KAC – 9 pts
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TAC – 4 pts
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BRINDABELLA – 3 pts (Tied with SCA, Silver Brumby, and Roslyn)
The Snowboard Champions & Podium Sweeps
Our boarding crew absolutely dominated the divisions they finished in!
- Gabriel Pearce (Boys 5-11): Absolutely crushed his run to take out 1st Place (39.51), becoming the division champion!
- Scarlett Ellinghausen (Girls 12-14): Put down a blistering run of 28.23 to claim 1st Place and the championship title! A special shout-out to Scarlett, who was the 3rd fastest rider overall down the hill across all divisions and genders.
- Eliza Ellinghausen (Girls 12-14): Chased her sister down the mountain to lock in a brilliant 2nd Place finish at 32.41, securing a Brindabella 1-2 finish on the podium!
- While Ellie Buffier, Amaya Buffier, and Ava Ellinghausen aren’t listed on this specific podium sheet, they went up against an incredibly tough 15-18 category. I have reached out to the organizers to get the full race results for the snowboarding as they haven’t yet been provided in the main packet.
TBH, I was a little disappointed with the lack of effort from the event organizers in the snowboard space. I get that it is new, but it was tough watching our snowboarders stand by as the ski teams received all their plates, trophies, and medals, only to be given a high-five and a promise of a medal in the mail. I’ve sent this formal feedback to the organizer and offered to have BSC donate a permanent trophy to get things off the ground properly. Fingers crossed it is a little more inclusive next year, because we have a pretty serious snowboarding team building at BSC!
Last but most definitely not least: THANK YOU TO ALL THE PARENTS!
We had Will, Christina, Alex, Conrad, Mal, and Pat all on the hill helping to get ribbons on the kids, bibs adjusted, and everyone where they needed to be. There was even a highly successful bribe of “robobucks” at one stage to get one of the kids (Fynn, from memory) to face the horrible weather and head down the hill!
Then we had our logistics legends: Claire for driving people around the mountain to and from Guthega; Jade for collecting bibs after wandering the streets of Thredbo in the freezing cold for 45 minutes looking for some place I mistakenly called “Baguette”; and Curtis for so quickly sorting out the trophy engraving and organizing it to be sent back to the officials.
Of course, a massive thank you to all the other parents cheering at the presentations and at the bottom of the course. This was truly a full BSC team effort. Even though the weather and snow were total rubbish, the company and camaraderie were amazing, making the whole day well worth it.
