Durango Nordic Preforms in Ski Town USA

Over January 13th and 14^th the Durango Nordic Ski Club travelling to Steamboat Springs, CO to race at the CU Invite and Steamboat Junior National Qualifier.  The Freestyle race on Friday was held on a grueling 2.5km loop of man-made snow, as was the Classic race on Saturday.  “Racing on the cold man-made snow turned out to create very fast conditions” said head coach Josh Dalley  “After a large blocks of distance training mixed with intensity over Christmas break, the DNSC athletes were prepared to race last weekend in Steamboat.”

On Friday the J1 boys raced 4 laps for a total of 10km.  Leading Durango and the whole J1 field was Haakon Sigurslid.  He was followed by Sepp Kuss in 7^th place.  The J1 girls raced 2 laps for total of 5km.  Rachel Hampton lead DNSC with a 3^rd place finish.  Hampton was followed by Amy Katz in 11^th, Kaylee Blevins in 13^th, and Lily Oswald in 14^th.  Also skiing 2 laps, Cully Brown lead the J2 boys field followed by Durango teammates Charlie Greenberg in 7^th, and Abe Ott in 18^th.  Skiing the same course, Hannah Peterson of DNSC was 3^rd in the J2 girls field.  Racing 1 lap of the 2.5km course, Stanton Ott placed 21^st in the J3 boys category.  On the same course, Quinn Luthy lead DNSC in 20^th place in the J4 boys race, closely followed by teammate Corbin Reiter.  Racing in the J4 girls race, Carter Reiter skied to a 21^st place finish.  Skiing a 1km loop Claudia Luthy placed 8^th in the J5 girls race.

Waking up to warmer temperatures on Saturday, DNSC prepared for the Mass start Classic race.  “Mass start racing is the most exciting to watch and coach.” said Dalley “The racers always know where they stand in terms of place, but have to plan their strategy to best suit their styles.  It’s not a straight forward as an individual start race.”  Again racing 10km, Haakon Sigurslid lead DNSC with a 6^th place J1 boys finish.  He was closely followed by Sepp Kuss in 7^th.  In the J1 girls race, Rachel Hampton again lead DNSC, having another 3^rd place finish.  She was followed by Amy Katz in 7^th, Kaylee Blevins in 12^th, and Lily Oswald in 13^th.  Again leading the J2 boys, Cully Brown skied away from the field to capture the win.  He was followed by Charlie Greenberg in 9^th and Abe Ott in 15^th.  In the J2 girls race, Hannah Peterson placed 10^th.  Again racing the 2.5km loop, Stanton Ott of Durango placed 17^th.  Corbin Reiter and Quinn Luthy battled it out for DNSC, placing 10^th and 11^th respectively in the J4 boys category.  Carter Reiter skied strong, placing 15^th within the J4 girls.  Claudia Luthy raced hard to a 6^th place finish among J5 girls.

“I am proud of how all our athletes raced, as well as how they represented our community this past weekend.”  Said Dalley  “We had very strong results as a team and we continue to pick up momentum as we head into our larger races later this winter.”  On January 27^th and 28^th, the Durango Nordic Ski Club will travel to Soldier Hollow, UT to race in the Western Region Super Qualifier.  Teams west of the Mississippi all travel to Soldier Hollow on that weekend for the largest junior race in the Nataion.