Nordic Visits Olympic Venue

The Durango Nordic Ski Club has just returned from a weekend of racing in the Western Super Qualifier hosted at Soldier Hollow, which was home to the Nordic Races in the 2002 Olympic Games.  At this year’s event, there were 647 racers, coming from ski clubs located in the regions west of the Mississippi River.  “This is the best venue a junior skier could ask to race at” said Head Coach Josh Dalley.  “As they race around the course, they can imagine being Olympians and skiing the same course back in 2002.”

The first day of racing was Freestyle Sprints, with a qualifier in the morning and head to head heats in the afternoon.  18 year older Haakon Samuelson had an outstanding performance in a competitive field, winning all his heats and placing 5^th in the final.  Placing 13^th overall and racing the B final was Gino Pastore.  Also in the OJ/J1 age group, but missing the rounds were Sepp Kuss (50), Ben Capelin (67), and Gunter Ott (94).  In the J2 boys field, Cully Brown advance into the heats, placing 16^th overall.  Following him were Abe Ott (78) and Gordon Gianniny (82).  In the OJ/J1 girls race, Alicia Pastore advanced to the B final, placing an overall 8^th along with Rachel Hampton who placed 12^th.  Also making the rounds from Durango was Hannah Madden (23).  In the J2 girsl division, 4 out of 5 Durango girls advanced to the rounds, lead by Amy Katz in 14^th.  Other results were Kaylee Blevins (21), Hannah Peterson (27), Lily Oswald (28), and Emma Greenberg (65).  Durango also had a large contingency of young kids, under the age of 14.  In the 13 to 14 year old group (J3), Avra Saslow lead the girls in 16^th.  She was followed by Maggie Wigton (44) and Amelia Wigton (50).  Charlie Greenberg lead the boys with an outstanding 2^nd place finish, followed by Jared Webster in 34^th.  Katja Freeburn lead the DNSC girls in the 11-12 age group (J4) with a 4^th place finish.  In the 11-12 boys, Dylan Williamson was 7^th, followed by Stan Ott in 16^th, and Leo Bruell in 27^th.  Skiing for Durango in the 8 to 9 age group (J5) was Jordan Taylor (9) and Taylor Bruell (11).  Cobe Freeburn was 3^rd in the 8 to 9 year old boys, and Wiley Corra was 1^st in the 6 to 7 year old group (J6).

The second day of racing consisted of mass start classic races.  This is when everyone in each age group starts at the same time, skis their course in the traditional cross country technique, and the first one to cross the line is the winner.  These races were in the reverse order of the Sprints, so the younger kids raced first.  Wiley Corra was in the first race of the day and brought home a win to Durango, skiing away from the rest of his J6 field to win by 18 seconds.  In the J5 girls race, Jordan Taylor was again 9^th, followed by Taylor Bruell in 11^th.  In the J5 Boys, Cobe Freeburn moved up to 1^st place, outsprinting 2^nd in the finish straight.  In the J4 girls, Katja Freeburn placed 4^th.  In J4 boys, Dylan Williamson placed 7^th, followed by Stan Ott (15) and Leo Bruell (27).  The J3 girls race was competitive with 58 girls racing.  Placing in that group were DNSC skiers Avra Saslow (14), Maggie Wigton (43), and Amelia Wigton (54).  Charlie Greenberg was again 2^nd in the J3 boys, followed by Jared Webster in 38^th.  Then the racing moved to the grueling Olympic 5k course.  J2 skiers completed 1 lap while the OJ/J1 Girls did 2 laps and the OJ/J1 boys did 3 laps to complete a 15k.  In the J2 girls, Kaylee Blevins had a spectacular races, leading the way for DNSC in 13^th.  She was followed by Amy Katz (15), Lily Oswlad (19), Hannah Peterson (32), and Emma Greenberg (62).  The J2 Boys were lead by Cully Brown in 5^th, followed by Gordon Gianniny in 66^th, and Abe Ott in 89^th.  The 10k OJ/J1 girls race was a tough one with two laps up the legendary Olympic Hills.  Alicia Pastore from Durango skied a tactically smart race, placing 4^th overall.  She was followed by Rachel Hampton in 12^th, and Hannah Madden in 23^rd.  Haakon Samuelson lead the 3 lap race for the Durango Boys, placing 20^th overall.  He was followed by Gino Pastore (26), Sepp Kuss (38), Gunther Ott (70), and Ben Capelin (81).

The Team has one more Junior National Qualifier left, which will be held in Aspen, CO on Febuary 12^th and 13^th.