Outlaws compete at championships

Skiers Bela Chladek and Corbin Fredland, along with other elite skiers from Oregon, traveled to Mt. Rose, Nevada, with the Oregon Interscholastic Ski Racing Association (OISRA), where they represented the state of Oregon at the Western U.S. High School Championships.

The team was comprised of the fastest high school ski racers from across Oregon. Another team from Oregon, Oregon Schools Ski Association (OSSA) representing the Bend area, also attended the race. Other states represented included two teams from Nevada and one team each from Colorado, California, and Wyoming.

The OISRA men’s team placed fourth behind Colorado and the two Nevada teams, and the OISRA Oregon combined men and women’s team placed third behind Colorado and Nevada Lake Tahoe. Oregon skier Annie Hendrickson from Oregon Episcopal School in Portland won the women’s slalom race.

Outlaws racers Chladek and Fredland competed well in very stiff competition against 81 other skiers.

Bela Chladek finished 17th in slalom and 33rd in giant slalom (GS). After coming off of a crash in the GS event at the State race at Mt. Hood, Chladek was a bit cautious on his first GS run, but came back aggressive in the second run and contributed points to the team score.

“Bela skied aggressively with a technically clean slate,” said Coach Gabe Chladek. “This tends to make him very fast edge-to-edge, which served him well in the slalom events, and led to him being one of the lead racers for the Oregon team in slalom.”

Corbin Fredland skied a solid first run in slalom, but didn’t finish his second run. On his second run he came out of the gate with extra aggression to try and earn the team some more points. He straddled a gate and was disqualified. He finished 40th in GS with two solid runs.

Coach Chladek said, “It’s been really fun to watch Corbin’s ski racing technique and style mature over the last three seasons on the high school team. His consistent style put him in the top half of racers in the GS and on his first run of slalom.”

Looking ahead to next season Coach Chladek said, “The Outlaw ski team should be extremely strong. The team is only graduating one senior from the girls team. With a high level of high school racing experience, the leadership for next year’s racers looks great, with Bela, Corbin, and Annie (Cohen) returning as seniors, and strong incoming juniors Presley (Adelt), Araiya (Grummer), and Charlotte (Seymour) to lead the team.”