On Feb 18-19, Middle Park High School’s Alpine Skiing Team competed in the Colorado High School Activities Association’s 2026 Alpine Skiing State Championships. In total, 18 Grand County competitors qualified for the event.

As a team, Middle Park placed third and fourth in the state for boys’ and girls’ competitions respectively. Summit High School took the crown for both groups.

“Everyone stepped up and did their very best,” said coach Lisa Mirabito. “They have been working hard all year, and I couldn’t have asked for more from them.”

Girls results

The girls team placed second in the giant slalom behind Summit High School. The boys team tied for first overall by points with Steamboat Springs’ team in slalom events, ending only ten points behind the state champion, Summit, through both disciplines.

Malie Dieterich, a sophomore from Summit, narrowly beat out Mackenzie Cross, a senior also from Summit, by four hundredths of a second to complete a clean top four sweep by Summit High School’s ski team in the girls’ giant slalom competition. Eden DeMino, sophomore from Battle Mountain High School, finished fastest in both runs for girls slalom, finishing over two seconds faster than the second-place finisher across both runs.

For Middle Park, juniors Marloes Adriaanse and Jess Heid, and sophomore Emmie Riggs all had individual runs that placed in top 10 placements for the two required runs within girls giant slalom- placing seventh, 10th and 13th respectively. Marloes Adriaanse placed very well within the slalom events as well, finishing sixth overall. Sophomore Avery Jacobson and Jess Heid finished 13th and 16th placements overall for the girls’ slalom events. Maggie Bellatty, the senior lead of the girls team, placed consistently in the top 25 in the state for both runs in both events.

Boys results

Seth Montgomery, a senior from Summit and defending champion in both boys’ events, completed a clean back-to-back-to-back winning performance for both events, making him the first to do so dating back to 2014. These two event wins also cement him as the most decorated high school alpine skiing athlete in Colorado history, doubling any other competitors’ accolades back to 2014.

Seniors Alek Guziur and Salvador Stokeld, who both place within the top five in the Colorado Cup — a point-based system for best overall performers through the season — placed in the top ten for at least one of their runs in the giant slalom. Alek Guziur, who placed in the top ten for both runs for giant slalom, finished in ninth place overall. Stokeld placed in 13th, followed by junior Alex Burke who rounded out Middle Park’s top three for the event in 16^th place.

Both Guziur and Stokeld achieved podium placements for boys slalom as well, placing fourth and fifth respectively. Burke and sophomore August Applequist placed within the top 20 overall for boys slalom. Owen Lee and Diego Mariotto, two other senior competitors that qualified for the state competition, placed 37^th and 50^th within the giant slalom discipline.

“We have 4 racers, Alek, Marloes, Jess, and Maggie who have been invited to represent Colorado at the Western Nationals in March,” says Lisa Mirabito. “It’s still early in the invite process for that, but there is a good potential that we will send even more.”

Going into next season, Lisa acknowledges that “we have a lot of seniors graduating, but we have a lot of depth with many younger skiers (that) are more than ready to compete with the best.”