MT. SPOKANE, Wash. – At the first conference race of the season, the UBC Thunderbirds raced to first-place finishes in both men's and women's categories. On the weekend of January 23-24, the team competed in two slalom races at Mt. Spokane, Wash. On Saturday, the women finished five seconds ahead of Whitman College, while the men's team was seven seconds ahead of the University of Idaho.

Rookies Emma Beattie and Matt Bunston, both formerly of the Ontario Ski Team, individually took first place. Kari Geier, Christina Donnelly and Tobias Britton rounded out the women's top 15 with seventh, ninth- and 13th-place finishes respectively. On the men's side, the top five was dominated by UBC skiers with Bunston, Ben Middleton and Alexander Matheson finishing first, fourth and fifth.

On Sunday, women finished second and men finished fourth despite a few falls. Beattie continued her winning streak and finished four seconds ahead of the second-place athlete. Meghan McLeod, Geier and Britton finished 12th, 13th and 15th. In a very tight race, Matheson took third place only six-tenths of a second behind first place.

"This weekend was a great start to our season," said head coach Ben Millar. "Saturday was a really great result and a perfect way to start the season."

The T-Birds travel to Silver Mountain, Idaho this weekend for their first Giant Slalom race of the season.