Monday, January 24, 2011

Nordic Storm at Snow Mountain Ranch

The Junior National Qualifiers continued this past weekend as the Durango Nordic Ski Club travelled to Granby, CO to compete in the second weekend of four Junior National Qualifier’s.  These races where hosted by Boulder Nordic Junior Race Team at Snow Mountain Ranch.  “As a team, this was our strongest showing so far this year.” said head coach Josh Dalley.  “We had 20 skiers racing at the event, with ages ranging from 11 to 18.  This weekend also solidified some Durango athletes spots on the Junior National Team, putting 13 DNSC athletes within striking distance of making the team.”

On Saturday Boulder hosted a five kilometer freestyle technique race.  The J1 and OJ classes all raced together (ages 16-19).  Leading the way  for DNSC was Gino Pastore in 7th place, followed by Sepp Kuss in 10th, Gunter Ott in 16th, Haakon Samuelson in 18th, and Ben Capelin in 23rd.  The Junior Women’s race was lead by DNSC skier Rachel Hampton in 4th and Hannah Madden in 9th.  Haakon Sigurslid lead the J2 Men age group (14-15) for Durango with a 3rd place finish.  Following Sigurslid were John Rhoades in 18th and Abe Ott in 20th.  In the girls J2 age group, Durango was lead by Amy Katz in 2nd place, Hannah Peterson in 6th, Lily Oswald in 9th, Kaylee Blevins in 11th, and Emma Greenberg in 18th.  DNSC had two J3 boys (12-13) compete.  Charlie Greenberg skied to a eight second victory and Jared Webster placed 12th.  In the J3 Girls race, Durango’s Avra Saslow placed 11th.  Dylan Williamson placed 5th and Stan Ott placed 9th in the J4 Male age class.  In the J4 Female class, DNSC skier Marit May rounded out the podium with a 3rd place finish.

The racers went head to head on Sunday in a mass start classic race.  The J1 and OJ Girls skied 10 kilometers with Rachel Hampton again leading the way for Durango in 7th, followed by Hannah Madden in 13th.  The J1 and OJ Boys raced 3 laps for a total of 15 kilometers.  Gino Pastore moved up a spot to 6th place, followed by Sepp Kuss in 10th, Gunter Ott in 14th, Haakon Samuelson in 16th, and Ben Capelin in 23rd.  The J2 Girls stuck to 5 kilometers, with a close race between the top 3.  Amy Katz from Durango was in the final sprint for the finish line and captured 3rd place.  In that age group she was followed by Hannah Peterson in 8th, Kaylee Blevins in 10th, Lily Oswald in 11th, and Emma Greenberg in 20th.  In the J2 Boys, Haakon Sigurslid lead the race from the beginning, finishing 1st with a 15 second gap over the rest of the field.  He was followed by John Rhoades in 18th and Abe Ott in 19th.  In the J4 Female class, Avra Saslow placed 8th.  Charlie Greenberg held on to a podium for the second day in a row, placing 3rd in the J3 Boys group.  He was followed by Jared Webster in 19th.  Marit May also held on to two days on the podium, moving up to 2nd place in the J4 Girls race.  In the J4 Boys race, Dylan Williamson proved himself to be a force, placing 3rd on the second day.  He was followed by Stan Ott in 7th.  Full results can be found on www.fourcornerstiming.com or www.durangonordic.org.

Next, the Durango Nordic Ski Club athletes will be racing this coming weekend in the Tour de Ski, hosted at Durango Mountain Resort.  The race courses wind their way around the Hermosa Valley, with challenging climbs and epic views. 

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