31 Central Oregon HS skiers set to compete in Alpine State Championships

(Update: adding video, new details, comments from skiers and coach)

Skiers from Summit, Mtn. View, Sisters and Redmond will race

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The high school Alpine State Championships are set for Thursday and Friday, and 31 Deschutes County skiers will compete. That’s an impressive feat in itself, but their challenging road to the big stage this year makes it an even bigger accomplishment.

Last week, skiers from all over the state took a trip up to Willamette Pass to compete in the Alpine Regional Finals.

Central Oregon showed out.

A local athlete finished first in each of the four disciplines – Slalom and Giant Slalom for both the Boys and Girls groups -- including Zoe Doden from Summit High School.

"We found out about 15-20 minutes after the race finished,” Doden told NewsChannel 21 Tuesday. “I was pretty excited. It was, I think, my first first place in my high school career."

Gabe Chladek, head coach of the Sisters Alpine Ski Team, said last week’s success was even more impressive when you consider how close these skiers were to not having a season at all.

"I think we were really close,” Chladek said. “I mean, normally, the high school ski racing season starts right at the end of winter break and runs through the beginning of March. We got into the second week of January and still didn't really have a plan for racing."

Since gyms were closed, many of the athletes had to move their dry land conditioning from indoors to outdoors.

For Chladek's team, that meant training on a track, in elements they've never had to face before -- heavy snow, strong winds, pouring rain -- and sometimes doing it all at night, in below-freezing temperatures.

"We're training three days a week, and we don't even really know what for, because we didn't have our race situation figured out,” Chladek said.

Then, at the end of January, the plan came together.

Now, 31 Central Oregon athletes representing four high schools will be moving onto the Alpine State Championships this Thursday and Friday at Mt. Hood Ski Bowl.

Brothers Harrison and Preston Schock, a senior and freshman at Summit, respectively, will be racing for their grandfather, who passed away two days before last week's Regional Finals.

"It was a little bit of an emotional time,” Harrison said Tuesday afternoon. “But we made it work, and we knew he wanted us to do well."

Preston added, "It was really something that we all loved together, so it was definitely something like, 'Well, I want to do good for him.'"

This will be their first time competing at the State Championships, and you could say the sibling rivalry is in full swing.

"Good luck Preston,” Harrison joked.

Preston, responded, "Yeah, good luck to you too."