Durango Nordic Athletes Return with Gold, Silver, and Bronze

From March 3^rd through March 11^th, 8 members of the Durango Nordic Ski Club were attending Junior Nationals held in Midway, UT at the Soldier Hollow Olympic Venue.  The trip we very successful for these athletes and the team returned home with 9 Individual All-American races, which is a top 10 finish, as well as a Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals.

 

The racing kicked off on Monday March 5^th with Classic Sprints.  The format starts with a qualifier in the morning and then the head to head sprint heats in the afternoon.  The top 30 in each age group in the qualifier move on to the sprint heats in the afternoon.  In the J1 Boys class, Haakon Sigurslid placed 11^th and Sepp Kuss placed 63^rd.  In J2 Boys, Cully Brown had an All American finish, placing 3^rd and Charlie Greenberg placed 58^th.  In the J1 Girls class Rachel Hampton placed 14^th, Amy Katz placed 26^th, and Kaylee Blevins placed 38^th.  In the J2 Girls class Hannah Peterson also had an All American finish, placing 8^th.

The next race was a mass start freestyle event on Wednesday March 7^th.  The first group to race was the J2 Boys where Cull Brown placed 16^th and Charlie Greenberg placed 34^th.  Shortly following them was the J2 Girls race and Hannah Peterson from Durango had an All American race, placing 8^th.  In the J1 Boys race, Sepp Kuss placed 20^th and Haakon Sigurslid placed 27^th. In the J1 Girls race, Rachel Hampton had an All American finish, placing 9^th.  She was followed by teammate Amy Katz in 19^th and Kaylee Blevins in 53^rd.

The final individual race was an individual start classic race on Friday March 9^th.  The first group to start was the J1 Girls where DNSC athlete Rachel Hampton again had an All American race, finishing 7^th.  She was followed by her teammates Amy Katz in 19^th and Kaylee Blevins in 38^th.  Next to race were the J2 Girls where Hannah Peterson again had an All American finish placing 6^th.  In the J1 Boys class Haakon Sigurslid placed 19^th and Sepp Kuss placed 21^st. In the last race of the day, Cully Brown had another All American race, finishing 2^nd in his class.  He was followed by his teammate Charlie Greenberg in 49^th.  

The 2012 Junior Nationals ended with a team relay on Saturday March 10^th.  Charlie Greenberg was on the 8^th place J2 boys team and Cully Brown was on the 11^th place team.  In the J2 Girls relay, Hannah Peterson was on the 4^th place relay team.  In the J1 boys race, Haakon Sigurslid was on the 9^th place team and Sepp Kuss was on the 12^th place team.  In the J1 Girls race, Rachel Hampton was on the gold medal winning 1^st place team and Amy Katz was on the 10^th place team.  Kaylee Blevins skied up an age group to be on an OJ Girls team that finished 13^th. 

“This was a great Junior Nationals for both Durango athletes and the Rocky Mountain Division.” Said coach Josh Dalley.  “For most of us, we skied our best at Nationals when it really counted.  It was nice this year to have Nationals hosted in Utach at higher elevation and a race venue we are used to racing at.  I think this contributed a lot to the success of our team and Rocky Mountain’s 2^nd place overall finish"